


Warm and Close

by Ellessey



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Magic, Angst with a Happy Ending, Camping, Confessions, Domestic, Explicit Sexual Content, First Kiss, Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Karasuno, Kissing, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Reunions, Self-Discovery, Team Bonding, Texting, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-11-30 11:38:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11462820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellessey/pseuds/Ellessey
Summary: ' Daichi nods and holds Suga as tightly to his body as he possibly can. He wants to sleep just like this, with their legs tangled together and hands tucked under clothing. With lips pressed to skin and sleepy breaths falling warm and close, so the wind and the cicadas and the night are just an accompaniment to the sound of him being in love with Suga, and not having to hide it at all. '--A collection of seven stand-alone ficlets for DaiSuga Week 2017. Some are fluffy, some are silly, and some are sexy, but the point of them all is to celebrate the ineffably beautiful connection between Daichi and Suga.





	1. Staying In

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little direction in reading through this! Every day has its own summary so you can get a sense of what the ficlet holds, and ratings/tags specific to each chapter will be listed in the beginning notes ^^

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> '“Oh God…what?” Daichi asks, brows creasing and eyes narrowing in preparation as he turns the ninety degrees necessary to face his reflection. He looks almost disappointed, once he’s taken it in, to find that there’s nothing obviously awry. “What?” he asks again. “What am I missing?”
> 
> Suga steps further into the bathroom so he can stand right behind Daichi, tipping his chin up and letting it rest on his husband’s shoulder. His pale face is the moon over the night sky of Daichi’s jacket. 
> 
> “Sawamura Daichi,” Suga says. “You look so handsome, there’s no way in hell I’m leaving the house with you tonight.”'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T  
> Tags: Aged-Up Character(s), Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, Non-Explicit Sex, Domestic, Fluff and Humor
> 
>  
> 
> There is no background reading necessary for this, but for anyone who has read [The Chronicles of the Virgin Asahi](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8596198/chapters/19713490), I was imagining this as the DaiSuga from that verse, a number of years down the road.

“Suga?” Daichi calls, from behind the closed bathroom door.

“If you’re not ready in the next three seconds I’m leaving without you, Daichi,” Suga shouts back to him. “Your hair is like an inch and a half long, it can _not_ take this long to—”

“It’s just my tie!” Daichi says. “I can’t...get... _help,_ please.”

Suga wants to scream, just a tiny bit, because they really should have left five minutes ago, but the sound of Daichi being defeated by a slip of fabric is so tragically endearing, it makes him laugh instead. “Oh my God,” he says, shaking his head as he starts to slide the door open. “How have you—”

Suga stops short and Daichi looks up at him, fingers still wrapped around some kind of tangled monstrosity that could not even possibly be classified as a knot. But it isn’t the tie Suga is staring at, it’s just Daichi.

He’s wearing a suit. Deep, inky black, perfectly tailored to rest close against broad shoulders, a sturdy chest, and a trim waist. Just shy of snug around muscular thighs. His crisp white dress shirt is bright against the golden brown of his throat, and it’s not that any of this is a surprise—Suga _asked_ him to wear a suit to this event, he _knows_ how good he looks in a suit—but until just this moment he didn't think about how infrequently he sees Daichi dressed up, or realize how powerfully the sight would remind him of their wedding day.

“God _dammit,”_ Suga says.

“I could just not wear it?” Daichi says, attempting to remove the tie and failing, because the disaster he’s created is not something that is easily taken apart. “Suga I _tried,_ it’s so slippery and—”

“ _Daichi,”_ Suga says, pressing his fingers to Daichi’s lips. “I do not give a shit about your tie. Have you looked in the mirror yet?”

“Oh God...what?” Daichi asks, brows creasing and eyes narrowing in preparation as he turns the ninety degrees necessary to face his reflection. He looks almost disappointed, once he’s taken it in, to find that there’s nothing obviously awry (aside from the tie). “What?” he asks again. “What am I missing?”

Suga steps further into the bathroom so he can stand right behind Daichi, tipping his chin up and letting it rest on his husband’s shoulder. His pale face is the moon over the night sky of Daichi’s jacket.

“Sawamura Daichi,” he says. “You look so handsome, there’s no way in hell I’m leaving the house with you tonight.”

Daichi’s eyes are still narrowed in confusion, but his lips spread into a smile at Suga’s words, and Suga’s certainty that they are definitely going to miss this dinner intensifies.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Daichi says. “You asked me to look nice. I look nice. So now we go.”

“Mm-mm,” Suga says, while attempting to shake his head. (It’s difficult in this position, so mostly he just digs his chin into Daichi’s shoulder). “You don’t look _nice,_ Daichi. You look...resplendent.”

“Resplendent?” Daichi repeats with a crooked grin.

(It’s a rakish grin, actually, combined with his neatly styled hair and this goddamn second skin of a suit, and Suga can’t actually recall why he was ever that interested in attending this event anyway. It’s just a glorified work thing. A chance to network and schmooze and connect. Suga is very good at these things though, he doesn’t need overpriced chicken and droning elevator music in the background to facilitate them. He’s confident that missing it will not be noticeably detrimental to his career, and even more confident that no matter what, it would be a much better use of his time to stay right here.)

“Devastatingly handsome,” Suga adds. “Irresistible. Fuckable, also, but that doesn’t sound nearly as scholarly.”

Daichi’s whole face is smiling now, which is so beautifully reminiscent of the day Suga married him (seven years ago now, somehow), that Suga’s eyes prick with tears.

It’s not that he is ever unaware of how lucky he is. He’s not inclined to take the people he treasures for granted, and Daichi is not the type of person who is easy to take for granted anyway. He’s so persistently _good,_ so steadfast and candid and disarmingly, quietly funny, that Suga is continually a little surprised that he is actually real, and that Suga is the one who gets to be delighted over and over by these things for the rest of his life.

But sometimes, when he really thinks about it—how amazing it is that he first saw Daichi’s face when he was sixteen, and that there was never anywhere else he wanted to look after that—it just _hits_ him in a way that makes him want to throw himself at Daichi and find every way possible to show him how glad he is that Daichi is his to hold.

“So...instead of going to this important night out, we’re going to....fuck?” Daichi asks, turning his head just enough to be able to side-eye Suga.

“That makes it sound crass,” Suga says.

“Yesterday you rapped Baby Got Back at me. _Aggressively._ Outside, where anyone could hear.”

Suga snorts at this reminder, but does not apologize for it. Daichi had been on his hands and knees in their little backyard, pulling up weeds, and Suga could have helped him (he did, actually, once he’d made it through the whole song), but he was very justifiably distracted by the way Daichi’s shorts were straining around his ass as he worked, and...well, there was really no way _not_ to make use of lyrics as appropriate as “beggin’ for a piece of that bubble.”

“That song is a gem,” Suga says.

“And/or offensive,” Daichi says, but he does not look offended. “You know we can have sex _after_ the dinner.”

“It’s not just that I want to fuck you,” Suga says, shaking his head again. “It’s....” He studies Daichi in the mirror—smiling eyes and soft lips above proud shoulders—and this time the burning behind his eyes is followed by tears welling up in earnest.

“Koushi?” Daichi asks, raising his arm and reaching to cup the back of Suga’s head.

“You just...you look so much like you did at our wedding,” Suga explains.

“Oh....but that's...good, right?”

Suga laughs and squeezes his arms around Daichi's waist. “ _Yes,_ but now I’m emotional and needy because I was _so_ happy that day, and I love that I’m _still_ so happy, and I just...sometimes it’s incapacitating how happy you make me, and I don’t want to see anyone but you right now,” Suga says, the words spilling out all in a rush, tinged with a little embarrassment.

Daichi stares at him in the mirror for a long three seconds, then turns suddenly and pulls Suga into his chest, his arms closing tight around him. “You _sap!”_ he says fondly.

“I’m _not_ a sap,” Suga retorts, pressing his uncooperatively wet eyes into Daichi’s shoulder.

“You went from calling me fuckable to delivering a tearful romantic speech in less than a minute,” Daichi points out, stroking Suga’s hair. “Explain your way out of that one.”

“I love you a _lot,_ you jerk.”

Daichi leans back so Suga can see how wide his smile is. Cups his face between his hands and brushes his tears away.

“You know I’m ten times worse than you.”

“You are,” Suga says. “But you’ve gotten too used to seeing me in a suit. I can't attack your sentimentalities in the same way.”

(Suga’s job requires a suit, while his veterinarian husband spends his days in scrubs. He looks extremely cute in them, especially when he trades in his standard dark blue for the white top with multicolored dogs all over it).

“Doesn’t matter,” Daichi says. “Suga...I never look at you without being blown away by how beautiful you are.”

“You would have made it out of the house tonight though,” Suga says, smiling crookedly.

“You said it was important! I bought this stupid tie and everything.”

“That’s not a tie,” Suga says. “That’s a cry for help.”

Daichi’s cheeks go pink, but he smiles ruefully as he looks down at the snarled fabric. “So we’re really not going?” he asks.

“I don’t want to,” Suga says. “I just want…”

He looks at Daichi as he tries to find just the right words for what it is he’s feeling, but doing so only leaves him speechless. Daichi is far too handsome, far too nostalgic in this suit. He's at once the boy Suga fell in love with and the man he's become, and Suga has a dizzying sense of seeing both his past and his future all at once, so he gives up on words altogether and just kisses his husband.

“I’m not...” Daichi begins, when Suga has begun to migrate from his lips to his jaw, “...keeping the suit on.”

“Well...” Suga reluctantly withdraws enough to speak clearly, and his eyes fall on The Tie. “You say that,” he says, tugging on it. “But this thing’s probably never coming off.”

Daichi grimaces, and Suga laughs before kissing his pouting lips. He catches the tie in his hand and starts to work at it blindly, pulling on it as he leads Daichi into their bedroom.

It takes another five minutes of wrestling with it, with Daichi on his back and Suga perched on his hips, before finally the knot unravels.

“ _How?”_ Suga asks. “You perform complex surgery on teeny, tiny animals. How can you not—”

“I don’t _know,”_ Daichi says. “Talk more about how fuckable I am...let’s pretend this didn’t happen.” He balls up the tie and tosses it off the bed for emphasis.

“I will never forget,” Suga says, but he does follow through on Daichi’s first request. He undresses him as slowly as he possibly can, interrupting his own progress constantly to kiss Daichi’s skin, to drop whispered praises all along the length of his neck and down the center of his chest as he slips the buttons open one by one. He runs out of synonyms for _gorgeous_ somewhere around Daichi’s hips, but when he shifts just slightly lower between spread legs and puts his lips and tongue to work for a new purpose, he is not met with any complaints.

The evening passes in a wonderfully breathless haze of progressively more swollen lips and sweat slick skin, and it’s not until Daichi has gone from panting, to crying out, to something close to comatose, and Suga has become boneless against him, that he lets his gaze drift over to the clock next to the bed.

“Hm...” he says. “We seem to be two hours late.”

“Shame,” Daichi murmurs without opening his eyes.

“There’s something not very Black Tie friendly on your pants as well.”

Daichi snorts quietly at this. “Pretty sure that would be inappropriate in any public setting.”

“Probably,” Suga agrees. “I guess we’ll be staying in then.”

“Guess so,” Daichi says, reaching out until his hand connects with Suga’s waist, and then pulling him halfway on top of himself. “Give me half an hour to not move and then I’ll make us something to eat.”

“Best husband,” Suga says, pressing a kiss to Daichi’s collarbone, because it is within easy reach.

Daichi’s arm settles heavily around him, his thumb brushing over his shoulder a few times before falling still. He can never stay awake after sex, and Suga can never fall asleep, but he likes it this way. The quiet and comfort of Daichi’s steady breathing, the way he holds onto him so tightly even while unconscious. It’s one of those things Suga supposes he could get so used to that he doesn’t even notice anymore, but Daichi is not someone who goes unnoticed, not for Suga.

He smiles at the clothing left crumpled on the side of the bed, and at the memory of jackets and dress socks scattered across the floor on their wedding night. It’s a different room, but it's the same heart beating under him. The same heavy satisfaction in his limbs and buzzy lightness in his head. The certainty warm in his chest that he has something that would be worth going anywhere for.

Or staying anywhere, as the case may be.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you [Essie](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Esselle/works) for beta reading and for all of your help figuring out how to organize this! Literally could not have done it without you <3 And thanks to Irides for cheering me on until every last day got done XD
> 
> I'm [ellessey-writes](http://ellessey-writes.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and you can find the rest of my AO3 DaiSuga works [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=836528&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&user_id=Ellessey).


	2. Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> '“You can fix this, right?” Daichi asks, when Suga has been silent for what feels like a bit too long, considering Asahi is still comatose.
> 
> “I don’t even understand what you did.”
> 
> “This doesn’t bode well for our date tonight, does it?” Daichi asks, though it is not really a question, and Suga doesn’t need to do more than look at Daichi to respond to it.
> 
> Of all the days for Daichi to almost kill someone, their one year anniversary was probably not the best.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T  
> Tags: Alternate Universe - Magic, Fluff and Humor
> 
> Just imagine that they are in their final year of a Hogwarts-esque school here *waves hand*

Daichi contemplates the concerningly still form of the boy stretched out in front of him. A minute ago, Asahi was sitting up on the floor next to Daichi, wand in hand, a frayed, dusty book of spells on his lap. He’d said, “Oh! I think this might do it!” and Daichi had agreed and recited the part of the spell they’d already put together, followed by the words Asahi’s finger was resting under, and now....

Asahi is his best friend. And also the best friend of Daichi’s boyfriend. It would be markedly problematic for everyone involved if his current state of unconsciousness were irreversible.

He holds his phone in his hands and prepares himself.

 **Daichi:** Suga  
**Daichi:** Koushi  
**Daichi:** light of my life  
**Daichi:** honey baby sweetheart

 **Suga:** omg....what do you need?

 **Daichi:** it’s possible i did a spell a little bit wrong  
**Daichi:** and could use your assistance rousing asahi from what is hopefully an intensely deep sleep and not death

 **Suga:** daichi  
**Suga:** tell me he’s breathing

 **Daichi:** i mean  
**Daichi:** his heart is beating

 **Suga:** ???????  
**Suga:** i’m still in class daichi what did you guys do? you were supposed to be studying

 **Daichi:** we were! we were trying to figure out how to breathe underwater  
**Daichi:** and i think we instead eliminated the need to breathe?

 **Suga:** go get help

 **Daichi:** i can’t...we definitely weren’t supposed to have this book  
**Daichi:** come please...you’re so good at this stuff  
**Daichi:** we’re in our room  
**Daichi:** you’re coming right?  
**Daichi:** Suga?

Daichi puts his phone down and looks at Asahi again. His chest still isn’t moving, but when Daichi leans over and presses his ear to it, he can hear the steady beat of his heart. Really, if it weren’t for the whole mysterious unconsciousness bit, this would be a pretty amazing piece of spellwork.  

He sits uncomfortably in the silence for a few minutes. The dorms are quiet and empty, with most students either in class or using their study periods to catch up on homework in the library, so he hears the footsteps as soon as they begin to patter up the staircase. Quick and light and sure, definitely Suga.

The door clatters when Suga tries to open it and finds it locked.

“Sorry!” Daichi says, flicking his wand to remove the enchantments he and Asahi set before beginning their experiments.

Suga slides the door open and steps inside. His silver hair is windswept from hurrying across the grounds to get here, his face pale, and his eyes fierce. He _is_ the light of Daichi’s life, but he will also probably deftly and capably murder him if they can’t sort out what’s happened to Asahi.

“Tell me exactly what you did,” Suga says.

Daichi waves him over and scribbles down the combination of spells they’d landed on, not wanting to say any of it out loud again.

“Where did you even get this?” Suga asks, pulling the book Asahi had been holding onto his lap.

“Kuroo.”

“Ah.”

“You can fix this, right?” Daichi asks, when Suga has been silent for what feels like a bit too long, considering Asahi is still comatose.

“I don’t even understand what you _did.”_

“This doesn’t bode well for our date tonight, does it?” Daichi asks, though it is not really a question, and Suga doesn’t need to do more than look at Daichi to respond to it.

Of all the days for Daichi to almost kill someone, their one year anniversary was probably not the best.

Suga sighs and looks at Daichi’s notes again. “It’s actually pretty brilliant, on paper,” he says. “But...”

“Literally nothing happened until we added this part,” Daichi says, tapping the last phrase. “If that helps.”

“It helps in that I feel like we can pin all of this on Kuroo for giving you this stupid book,” Suga says. “But otherwise...dammit, Daichi...we can’t have a romantic night under the meteor shower if Asahi is...whatever the fuck you’ve done to him.”

“He’s the one who said, ‘this might do it,’” Daichi points out, just so that part of the story is clear.

“And then you just did it,” Suga says.

“I....did.”

Suga sighs again. Daichi makes sure Asahi’s heart is still working again. He assumes, somehow, Asahi _is_ in fact breathing.

There is a lot more silence after the sighing. Neither one of them want to make things worse.

“Try it on me?” Daichi suggests.

“Tempting, but no.”

“We have to do something.”

Suga glares at him and lifts his wand. This is not at all how this day should have gone, goddammit.

“I’m afraid of killing him,” Suga says, instead of uttering some kind of saving grace counter-curse. (Except it wasn’t a curse that put Asahi in this state, so Daichi doesn’t really know what they need to do to counter it.)

“You’re not gonna kill him,” Daichi says. “Let’s just...work backwards. Undo every step one at a time.”

“You didn’t do this to him one step at a time.”

This is true, but it’s been quite some time since Asahi last took a breath, and Daichi feels like doing anything right now would be better than nothing.

“Tell me what to say and I’ll say it,” he says.

Suga sighs once more (so much sighing, Daichi is going to have so much to make up to him when this is resolved and he can get him alone. He’s...looking forward to that quite a bit, actually.)

“Okay,” Suga says, and then he starts to draw neat, quick circles around the notes he’s made under Daichi’s. “Go backwards. Last to first.”

Daichi nods and takes a steadying breath before raising his wand. He speaks slowly, so each word comes out deep and clear, reading every phrase that Suga taps with his finger until all the little text bubbles have been connected.

Nothing happens.

“What are we missing?” Suga asks.

If Daichi knew the answer to that question, he and Asahi would probably be down at the lake just now, getting a good swim in before Suga got out of class. Proudly showing him their accomplishment when he came to join them. As it is, though...

“Maybe reversing it isn’t the answer?” he suggests. “Maybe we just need...”

“Why isn’t he _breathing?”_ Suga asks, cutting him off.

Another good question.

The spell Suga has put together seems like it should work. Daichi doesn’t understand A) how this happened, or B) why this isn’t un-happening.

“I had _plans_ for tonight,” Suga says.

“I...know?” Daichi says. “They were with me.”

“No.” Suga is shaking his head. “You don’t get it. I had _plans_ for _you._ They were _good_ plans, Daichi.”

“You know Asahi not dying is already adequate motivation for me to want to fix this, right? You don’t need to...to...what plans?”

“Make Asahi breathe,” Suga says.

Daichi holds his wand aloft again and abandons their notes. He tries simple spells. Charms for wakefulness, and counter-curses for anything remotely related to Asahi’s predicament. He tries combining them. He tries things that make no sense at all, trusting that Suga will stop him if he veers too close to something that may result in actual death.

“Oh my God,” Daichi says, when he’s hit Asahi with every charm he can think of and absolutely nothing has happened. “Asahi, just wake the fuck up!”

Asahi blinks.

Daichi and Suga both drop forward, leaning so close to Asahi’s face that everyone goes a little cross-eyed as they stare at each other.

“What...” Asahi says, blinking slowly in bewilderment.

“Ha!” Daichi says. “Are you breathing? You’re breathing, yeah?”

“He can’t be,” Suga says, turning his head so his ear is directly in front of Asahi’s nose and mouth. “Breathe, Asahi.”

“I am?” Asahi says.

Suga’s eyes are narrowed, but he nods.

“Ha,” Daichi says again.

“You did not do that. That’s not a spell, Daichi,” Suga says firmly. “Asahi, how do you feel? Do you have the sense you’ve suffered brain damage?”

“ _What?”_ Asahi says again.

Now that he is at least definitely not dead, they take him to the infirmary and let the school’s nurse check him over thoroughly. He seems not to have suffered any ill-effects, and by the time they’re back in their room he’s chatting with them animatedly, trying to determine what the fuck was done to him, and how it was undone.

“I’m magic,” Daichi says.

Suga says, “In bed, yes, but _this_ was not magic,” and Asahi requests that they render him unconscious again.

In the end they can only assume that the spell that put Asahi under was temporary, conveniently lifting at the moment Daichi directed him to awaken.

“Or,” Daichi says, “I’m so powerful that my will alone worked better than a standard spell.”

He does not believe this is true for a moment, but he likes how it makes Suga look at him in that you-idiot-I-want-to-take-your-clothes-off kind of way.

“I’m going to see if I can still get dinner,” Asahi says. “If you guys are going to be gross can you be done before I get back, or do it elsewhere, please?”

“Daichi mysteriously suspending your breathing has fucked up the schedule,” Suga says. “We may only have time to watch the stars now.”

“No,” Daichi says. “Forget the stars, I want the plans.”

“This meteor shower is supposed to be spectacular, Daichi,” Suga says.

“Don't respond to that until I’m gone,” Asahi says, and then he swiftly vacates the room.

“You know what would be spectacular?” Daichi says, pulling Suga into him so he can start using the press of his lips against the soft skin of Suga’s neck to get him into more of a romantic mood, and less of a _you shouldn’t be allowed to attend an academy of magic_ state of mind. “You and me, locking this door and doing everything you had planned.”

“I’m mentally exhausted now,” Suga says, tipping his head back so Daichi can kiss the tender spot just below his chin.

Truthfully, Daichi is, too, but physically, he’s good to go. “We don’t have to think,” he says.

“I’ve been practicing things, though,” Suga says, his fingers slipping just under the back of Daichi’s shirt to trace over his spine. “Ways to restrain you with magic. Spells to make it feel like I’m touching you everywhere at once, to make you even more sensitive. To make you come so hard you—”

The door slides back open with a sudden clatter, and Asahi pokes his head in with his hand over his eyes, just in case. “Guys?”

“Oh my _God,_ Asahi,” Daichi says. “Don’t make me regret waking you up.”

“What?” Suga asks. “Are you okay?”

Asahi’s face is shining, his hair dripping onto his shoulders. “I can breathe underwater,” he says.

Daichi is tremendously torn.

He wants to dropkick Asahi into another dimension so he can hear the rest of what Suga was saying, and then experience it. Endlessly. Possibly until it kills him. But also...also....

“Tomorrow night?” he says, turning back to Suga. “When our mental capacities are restored?”

Suga shakes his head, but he laughs, and Daichi can see in his eyes that he’s just as curious about their unexpectedly successful spellwork as Daichi is.

“Let’s go,” he says.

They thunder down the stairs together and out onto the school grounds. The meteor shower is just beginning, descending balls of light leaving trails of stardust in the dark, and the lake is still warm from the heat of the day.

Daichi has not forgotten about the plans. He will never forget about The Plans, but in the end, this is really a very nice way to spend their anniversary.

Primarily because Asahi is their best friend, and he is not dead. He is joyfully diving to the bottom of the lake, and returning to where Suga and Daichi wait at the surface with bright stones and bizarre flowers that none of them have ever seen before. They exclaim over them together, and over the fact that this is possible, and that they don’t know _how_ it’s possible, or how long it will last. (Which is why Suga starts counting every time Asahi goes underwater.)

And also because even if The Plans have been put on hold, Daichi and Suga are together, with wet, star-kissed skin, and blossoms in their hands, and the sky glowing above them.

Also....Daichi brought Asahi back to life. And gave him the ability to breathe underwater.

Honestly it would be hard to accurately rank all of these things. It’s really just a very good day altogether.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm [ellessey-writes](http://ellessey-writes.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and you can find the rest of my AO3 DaiSuga works [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=836528&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&user_id=Ellessey).


	3. Shy/Bold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> '“You were looking at me,” Suga says. “I thought you might need something?”
> 
> “Oh…no,” Daichi says, and when Suga’s lips tip up, perhaps a bit smugly, a bright flush settles not only in his ears, but high on his cheeks as well. “I mean, yeah, I…I was wondering…do you understand this? The question about, uh…” He looks down at the homework before him. Each equation has already been solved, probably with perfect accuracy. Worked out in detail in Daichi’s neat, bold writing.
> 
> “Which question, Daichi?” Suga asks, not bothering to keep the knowing smile off his face.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T  
> Tags: Flirting, First Kiss, Fluff
> 
> [Riin](http://priintaniere.tumblr.com/) and I decided to collaborate on this one, as flirty DaiSuga is more or less what we live for, so please be sure to check out her accompanying [art](http://priintaniere.tumblr.com/post/162917181662/please-do-not-repostedituse-without-my)!!!

It’s around the time Daichi turns eighteen that Suga decides it’s time to stop playing around. They’ve had a good two and a half years of a lovely, comfortable friendship, with flirting so gentle, so unobtrusive, that you’d have to squint to even see a hint of it.

(Suga is honestly uncertain of how well Daichi has been able to see it even then. It’s entirely possible that he’s largely been alone in recognizing its existence.)

But they are both eighteen now, with only a few months left before graduation, and whether or not Daichi is quite aware of the way Suga’s feelings for him have been evolving and growing, like little, flowering vines, Suga knows that Daichi’s own feelings have not remained unchanged.

He sees the burn of color at the tops of his ears when Suga lets their legs press against each other while they sit on the floor of the gym, listening (or not really listening) to Coach Ukai talk about their next match. He feels his eyes on him when they sit in class, when there’s no reason at all for Daichi to be looking at him, and he sees them dart away when Suga turns to him.

“Daichi?” he whispers, when this happens in the middle of study period, sometime in early January. He could pretend he didn’t notice, but Suga is ready to leave the delicate flirting behind, and move on to something that may actually yield results.

Daichi turns back to him slowly, with an expression that seems to be attempting an appearance of relaxed, vague curiosity. Suga has never called him out on the stolen glances before, and he is instantly extremely pleased with his decision to do so.

“Yeah?” Daichi says.

“You were looking at me,” Suga says. “I thought you might need something?”

“Oh....no,” Daichi says, and when Suga’s lips tip up, perhaps a bit smugly, a bright flush settles not only in his ears, but high on his cheeks as well. “I mean, _yeah,_ I...I was wondering...do you understand this? The question about, uh...” He looks down at the homework before him. Each equation has already been solved, probably with perfect accuracy. Worked out in detail in Daichi’s neat, bold writing.

“Which question, Daichi?” Suga asks, not bothering to keep the knowing smile off his face. He’s not even sure what he’s hoping for here, what he would prefer. He’d love for Daichi to say _I was looking at you, Suga, I can’t stop looking at you,_ but he also would not be at all opposed to more of this blushing and stammering.

Suga is very familiar with how steady and assertive Daichi can be. He sees it all the time at practice and matches and tournaments, and he loves it. He loves the confidence Daichi inspires in others, the way when Suga himself is uncertain, Daichi is always right there with a logical way of breaking down Suga’s worries into something manageable.

However.

As attractive and wonderful as that side of Daichi is (and it is _very_ attractive, Suga is not afraid to admit), there’s something to be said for this other side of the handsome captain. The shy stumbling, the beautiful humility of someone who has no idea how desirable they are.

“Uh...” Daichi says. “I must have...I think I figured it out, actually.”

“Ah,” Suga says, and he could say more, but Daichi looks quietly horrified with himself, and Suga has mercy. For now. “Okay,” he adds with a friendly smile. Daichi smiles back, looking infinitesimally less distressed, and they both go back to their homework.

Suga steals quite a few glances over the rest of the period, though stealing is probably not the correct word, as he is in no way trying to do this stealthily. He watches Daichi writing, studies the angles of strong fingers, and the line of his jaw, the way it tightens and relaxes when Daichi is intensely focused. (It does this on the court, too, and something about a clenched jaw on a boy who is shining with sweat, and bright-eyed with the drive to win, is almost unbearably appealing.) Suga can only be expected to pretend there is not something more than friendship here for so much longer. Which is why he doesn’t steal these glances, he takes them, boldly, so Daichi will feel them and know that Suga can’t keep his eyes off him.

He’s hoping Daichi will turn the tables on him and ask if he needs something. He’s quite sure that he could be honest if Daichi asked, but he doesn’t. He just ducks his head over his work, blushing intermittently while Suga watches him until the period ends.

“Are you feeling okay?” Suga asks after he’s packed his books up, pressing his palm to the back of Daichi’s neck.

“Yes, of course,” Daichi says, lifting a hand as if to brush Suga’s away, but then dropping it to his desk and clearing the rest of his things instead.

“You sure? You’re pretty hot,” Suga says, which actually was truly not intentional, the double meaning, but is certainly not regrettable. Daichi’s skin really is warm to the touch, though, after all that blushing.

“I guess it’s hot in here,” Daichi says, getting to his feet.

“Huh...” Suga says, pretending to consider this, and then resting his fingers on his own cheek before touching them lightly to Daichi’s. “ _I’m_ not hot though.”

“You’re...you...” Daichi begins, and for one spectacular second Suga thinks he might be about to say _you are,_ but then he blinks and laughs with just a touch of awkwardness, patting Suga’s hand with his own. “That’s because you have terrible circulation. Your hands are always cold.” He pulls Suga’s hand away from his face then, squeezing it gently before letting it go.

“Hm...true,” Suga says. “My feet, too.”

“I know, they’re like ice at night,” Daichi says, and then they both blush a little, because it seems like such a personal thing for him to know. But they’ve slept next to each other at training camp since they were first years, and more often than not, they’ve woken up much closer to each other than they were when they fell asleep. “We should, um...”

“Right,” Suga says, following Daichi towards the classroom door so they can head to practice. They’re both quiet on the way there, and Suga hopes very much that Daichi is busy analyzing the way Suga has been behaving, and coming to all the right conclusions.

He wonders if, perhaps, he needs to step it up. Daichi has to know, he _has_ to, that the attention he pays to Suga hasn’t gone unnoticed. He must be aware that Suga is far from put off by it. But he’s still trying to hide it, and Suga doesn’t want to do that anymore. He wants to weave their fingers together when they walk home, instead of just letting the backs of their hands touch every so often. He wants to find out what Daichi’s lips taste like instead of just imagining.

“Come over after practice?” Suga asks. “My parents are out tonight.”

Daichi’s eyes flick over to him and then dart quickly away. “Ah...so you need me to make dinner for you then, don’t you?” he asks, but he’s blushing _again,_ and Suga’s heart is inflating like a balloon because Daichi knows that’s not why Suga invited him, and if he says _yes..._

“No!” Suga says with a laugh that is as buoyant as everything inside him. “We can pick up ramen on the way. My treat.”

He moves close enough to Daichi as they walk that their shoulders brush, the kind of unnecessary touch that has become normal for them over the course of their last year of high school. Suga doesn’t let the space open back up between them though, like he usually would. He stays close, and Daichi glances at him again quickly, and this...this is new. This is what Suga wants.

Daichi doesn’t break their contact either. He turns his face away, but Suga can still see the color lighting it in profile, the smile making it glow.

“Yeah,” Daichi says. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Suga repeats. He sounds giddy. He doesn’t care.

“Not that place by the bus stop, though, they have no concept of mild seasoning.”

“Uh...yes, exactly,” Suga says. “That’s why we’re going there.”

Daichi laughs and shakes his head, and Suga steps in front of him to catch his chin between his thumb and index finger, tipping it up in a nod.

“Oh good!” he says. “I’m glad we agree.”

Daichi grins and halfheartedly tries to shake his head again, but Suga arches his eyebrows in a challenge, keeping his hand in place, and Daichi’s wide smile softens into something else—parted lips and unsaid words on the tip of his tongue. This isn’t uncommon, the closeness and the playfulness, but the lingering is, and Suga’s beginning to lose count of the number of times he has touched Daichi’s face this week, just to do it. The look in Daichi’s eyes suggests that he may be keeping track.

Suga loosens his grip, but leaves his hand where it is, fingertips feather light on the edge of Daichi’s jaw.

“Suga...”

“We agree?” Suga asks lightly, because as much as he wants to put Daichi on the spot, he also adores him far too much to make him truly uncomfortable. He wants this to be acknowledged, the way touching Daichi makes his skin tingle, makes his bones feel shivery and alive, but not at the expense of—

“Yes,” Daichi says, and Suga knows even before Daichi’s hand closes around his wrist that this isn’t pretend, he hasn’t taken the out Suga offered him. It’s not a distraction or an answer to a question about dinner that neither one of them really care about.

It’s dark eyes fluttering closed, and warm breath ghosting over Suga’s lips before Daichi is kissing him, right there in the courtyard between the school’s main building and the gymnasium. Their mouths haven’t quite matched up, because Daichi closed his eyes too soon, and Suga was too surprised to move. His eyes are open still, drinking in dark lashes and flushed skin, watching a strong hand slide up from his wrist to cup the back of his hand, to guide it until Suga’s palm is pressed right to the heat of Daichi’s cheek.  

Suga closes his eyes then, and his joy is too big to stay inside him. It spreads to his lips, curving them up and breaking their kiss.

“Daichi!” he says, because he can’t believe Daichi did this, that he’s _doing_ this, right here. And because he’s so, so happy, and Daichi’s name is synonymous with that feeling.

“Suga?” Daichi asks, biting his lip (his lip that was just pressed to the corner of Suga’s mouth), and keeping Suga’s hand tight against his cheek.

“You kissed me,” Suga says. It’s in no danger of sounding accusatory, with the way his lips can’t do anything but smile and smile and smile.

“I tried,” Daichi says, laughing softly in that wonderful way he has, a little self-deprecating, but comfortable and easy. He slips his fingers between Suga’s and lowers their hands, perhaps to prevent this moment they’re sharing from being quite so glaringly obvious to anyone passing by. He doesn’t let go though—their hands stay laced together, hanging between them. “I’m pretty sure I can do better, but I didn’t want to lose my nerve so I just...”

“Just kissed me,” Suga says again, and Daichi nods. “It was perfect.”

Daichi ducks his head (which is probably good because the blushing and smiling are too much for Suga to handle in full), and tugs Suga along towards the gym. “You must really like me,” he says.

“I _do._ I’ve been trying to make that as clear as possible,” Suga points out. “Are you actually that adorably obtuse?”

“That’s a nice way of saying _slow,_ right?” Daichi laughs. “I wanted to be sure, Suga. I didn’t...I don’t want to mess anything up with you.”

“Are you sure now?” Suga asks. They’ve reached the gym, but they keep walking to stand around the corner from the entrance instead of going inside. “I can be _much_ more explicit, I just didn’t want to terrify you.”

“I’m sure you can,” Daichi says with a grin. “And I’m not afraid.”

(Suga loves the way he says this. Not as if he’s trying to prove anything, only as an admission of his comfort with what’s developing between them.)

“Good,” Suga says. “Because we have practicing to do.”

Daichi blinks at him, clearly trying to work out how what they’ve been talking about relates in any way to volleyball, and then quickly putting the pieces together. “I swear to God I can do better than that.”

“It was a _joke,_ Daichi,” Suga snorts. “But if you feel like you need to prove somethi—”

Daichi does seem to feel this, and Suga could really get used to being interrupted with kisses. This one is right on target and significantly less hesitant, though Suga wouldn’t call it _better,_ because Daichi’s lips being on him in any way is perfection. The first time was perfect, this second time is perfect, and he thinks that every kiss hereafter will be another variation of _the best._

“You should know,” Daichi says, after they’ve pulled apart again, a little breathlessly this time, “I take practice very seriously.”

“I’m aware of that, Captain,” Suga says, noting with delight the way Daichi’s eyes flash in response, and tucking that discovery away for further experimentation another time. “If you don’t have any homework you need to pretend you don’t understand, we should have plenty of time for that tonight.”

“I...” Daichi begins. His face is already faintly flushed from kissing, and the color deepens now at the reminder of his failed attempt to excuse his staring in class. “Shut up,” he says. “I can’t help looking at you.”

“Good,” Suga says, and even though he already knew this, hearing Daichi say it sets off the feeling of flowers sprouting and blooming wildly inside him. “I want you to look.”

They both try to kiss each other at the same time after this, and it works out about as well as could be expected for two inexperienced kissers, but they aren’t just two boys with crushes and nothing else between them. They’re best friends who have made a study of supporting each other both on and off the court, who have ease and familiarity alongside the spark and excitement of attraction. So they laugh, and they touch each other gently, adjusting and accommodating and trying again. And again.

When they go into the gym they aren’t holding hands anymore, aren’t even looking at each other (though this won’t last very long), but Suga can feel the change that’s taken place all the same. The shift from wanting to having (and still wanting). He feels Daichi’s eyes on him when he’s setting, and when he’s not doing anything at all.

When the other boy passes by him to break up an argument between the first years, Suga can’t resist calling out, “Daichi...did you need something?”

“Hmm?”

“You were...looking at me,” Suga says sweetly.

“Ah...yeah,” Daichi says. There are no excuses or turning away. Just a smile and a hint of a blush. “I don’t need anything.”

Suga smiles, too, and nods, because he feels exactly the same way.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm [ellessey-writes](http://ellessey-writes.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and you can find the rest of my AO3 DaiSuga works [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=836528&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&user_id=Ellessey).


	4. Past/Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> '“Hello, stranger,” Suga says, as if years and years haven’t passed between them since he told Daichi they didn’t need to become what they are now.
> 
> Daichi doesn’t know if he should make small talk and ask Suga how he is, or just pick up right where they left off. It’s funny how the space between that one moment in the past, and this one moment of a future he couldn’t predict, feel as if they exist right next to each other.
> 
> “I’m sorry I didn’t call you,” he says.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T  
> Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Self-Discovery, Reunions
> 
> This is more about the coming back together than the moving apart, so have no fear, folks...I don't write sad endings.

When he was seventeen years old, Daichi thought that he could see the future. Not because he had some kind of gift, some newly presenting psychic ability, but because he couldn’t see it going any other way. It seemed so simple, so certain. He and Suga would stay together. They would go to the same college, or at least colleges in the same city, and then they’d settle down together. Of course they would.

It was like a bad dream, that afternoon at Suga’s house when they were working on college applications together and everything ahead of them began to get murky. When Daichi said he would go wherever Suga went, and he’d blushed a little because it was sappy and overly romantic, but he meant it and he didn’t take it back. And instead of smiling or teasing or kissing him, Suga had bitten his lip and looked away.

“You shouldn’t center all your plans for your future on me,” he’d said quietly, not meeting Daichi’s eyes.

And Daichi blurted out, “Why not? My plan for the future _is_ you,” because at seventeen, not only did he not actually know the future, he didn’t know better than to put his heart right in front of someone who was not reaching out to take it.

Suga said, “Daichi,” and nothing else, and Daichi wanted to disappear, which was a terrible thing to feel around someone who had always made him so happy to be present.

He was afraid that any attempt to determine why exactly he and Suga were not on the same page would cause the uncomfortable burning behind his eyes to progress to something he couldn’t hide, so he didn’t say anything either.

Suga apologized that night, in a text message sent while Daichi was staring up at the ceiling in the dark.

 _I love you,_ he said, _but we’re so young, Daichi._ _It scares me a little sometimes that I don’t really know who I am without you._

Daichi didn’t really know who he was without Suga either. He wondered if it should scare him that this didn’t bother him at all.

 _Do you want to break up?_ he asked. His cheeks were already wet by the time he finished typing the words, but there was no one there to see him, and he didn’t like uncertainty. If that was where this bad dream was taking them, he just wanted to know.

 _No,_ Suga said. _Of course I don’t._

_But you don’t want to stay together._

_That’s not what I’m saying, Daichi,_ Suga responded after a long pause.

Essentially it was, though. If Suga couldn’t know who he was while being with Daichi, then what else was there but to try _not_ being with him?

Daichi didn’t ask where Suga was applying after that. He applied within Miyagi and Tokyo, because if he was going to be without Suga, he wanted to at least be with someone he knew. When graduation came, it was understood that Daichi would be going to Tokyo to room with Kuroo and Bokuto-san, and Suga would be leaving for Kyoto, alone. They never officially broke up, not with those words actually being said, not with a fight, but somehow, quietly, they stopped being together.

“You understand, right?” Suga asked when Daichi stood with him at the train station. They’d managed to not actually talk about any of this by just not talking. It was the only way Daichi knew to not say any more things he’d have to look back on with regret.

He nodded, even though he didn’t understand.

“I love you,” Suga said. “I want to be a whole person for you, you know?”

Daichi did not know. Suga was a whole world already.

He nodded again. And then he asked, because he had to, “We’re...not _us_ though now, right?”

Suga kissed him, with wet eyelashes and fingers clutching too tight. “We don’t have to be strangers,” he said.

But at eighteen, Daichi didn’t know how to be anything in between the two with the boy he thought he would marry.

He said, “I think we do,” and then he left before he could fall apart.

Suga stood behind him, and the future was vast and unknowable in front of him.

* * *

At twenty-five years old, Daichi can neither see the future, nor does he consider it an empty and terrifying expanse. It holds possibilities. He’s learned, over time, that if one does not become reality, another one may. He didn’t become a high school coach like he thought he would, but he did fall in love with coaching in another manner. Instead of studying sports medicine, he studied psychology. Instead of staying in Tokyo as he imagined he would, he has just taken a job in Miyagi as a middle school counselor.

He hugs Kuroo goodbye at the doorstep of his new apartment, both of them cursing and laughing to make up for the fact that they are also crying. They dated for a couple years, while they were still in college, but Daichi never thought he would marry Kuroo, and Kuroo never felt like he was lost in Daichi, and when they decided to be friends instead it didn’t shatter Daichi’s world, it only shifted it.

He’s never felt anything as all-encompassing as what he felt for Suga. He doesn’t know if that’s because it was Suga, or because Suga was his first love. He thinks, when he considers this uncertainty, that maybe he finally understands what Suga was trying to do for them. It isn’t something he can talk over with him, though, because he and Suga don’t talk. It seems foolish now, regrettable, but twenty-five year old Daichi understands a lot of things that seventeen year old Daichi did not.

The younger Daichi could only do what made sense for him though, and nineteen/twenty/twenty-one year old Daichi stubbornly held to that, because of the fear that seeing Suga again would feel just as terrible as walking away from him had. Twenty-two year old Daichi considered calling Suga, but he did not, because teenaged Daichi ignored quite a few calls from Suga when college first began, and it seemed unfair to try to return them after so long.

He’s kept in touch with Asahi though, so Suga’s life is not a total mystery to him. He knows that he’s traveled, that he’s spent time in Europe and in America, that he came home again a year or so ago and is teaching now, at the same school where they fell in love. Where Daichi thought he would be a coach. Where he probably would be a coach, if they had stayed together.

“How was your first day?” Asahi asks when he calls that evening.

“Good!” Daichi tells him, because the job he chose instead of the one he thought he’d have _is_ good. It holds the same satisfaction of guiding someone, of helping them find wings, but in a different way, a deeper way that leaves him feeling more full than he could have imagined. “The kids are _so tiny_ though, can you even remember being that small?”

“I was never really that small,” Asahi points out, and Daichi laughs.

“Less bearded though.”

“Thank God. Middle school was bad enough without needing to shave.”

Daichi laughs again, and they talk some more about little things, old memories that inevitably involve Suga.

“So...” Asahi says. It’s been almost seven years of him not pushing Daichi to talk to Suga, but leaving openings for him to say that he will. “I haven’t told Suga you’re here.”

“I don’t think it even matters, Asahi,” Daichi says. “It’s been so long.”

“And yet, you still haven’t called him.”

He hasn’t, and he’s not even sure why anymore. He’s still a little ashamed, he supposes, for wanting Suga more than Suga wanted him. For not realizing it until he’d already set words between them that he couldn’t pick back up. He’s ashamed of not being mature enough to stay friends with Suga, to know him and support him even if they were in different cities, even if they weren’t going in the same direction. Maybe if they’d still been in touch they would have found their way back to each other in the end. But Daichi wanted everything, right then, and now even though they’re back in the same place, there is nothing here but memories.

Daichi holds the phone to his ear and doesn’t say anything, and eventually Asahi sighs.

“For someone who’s so good at solving other people’s problems....”

“I don’t have a problem,” Daichi says, with a laugh that’s a bit forced. “It’s all in the past.”

“Okay,” Asahi says.

After they hang up, Daichi lies awake for a long time on the crisp new sheets of his old slouchy bed. He’s accepted that Suga was not his future, but he’s not actually certain that he’s only his past either, since he’s still _here_ after all this time _._ Still in his thoughts.

When he leaves work the next day he takes a bus from the middle school to the high school instead of to his apartment, without really making the decision to do so. He doesn’t go inside, because he’s not sure he should be here at all, but he also can’t get himself to leave. He stays outside as the faculty starts to exit, one by one, until a slender, fair haired man steps outside. He’s a little more angular, more handsome than the soft faced boy Daichi remembers, but it’s him. The Sugawara Koushi who didn't end up with Daichi.

He smiles at someone walking back into the school, looks up suddenly as a crow swoops past him and careens into the blue, and then his eyes fall on Daichi.

Daichi isn’t sure what he was expecting from this moment, but none of the things he might have hoped for—a bright smile, a sudden hug—seem to be forthcoming. Which, really, is what he _should_ have expected.

Suga regards him quietly, soft lips in an almost expressionless line, eyebrows just slightly drawn together.

“Hello, stranger,” he says, as if years and years haven’t passed between them since he told Daichi they didn’t need to become what they are now.

Daichi doesn’t know if he should make small talk and ask Suga how he is, or just pick up right where they left off. It’s funny how the space between that one moment in the past, and this one moment of a future he couldn’t predict, feel as if they exist right next to each other.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call you,” he says.

“Have you been in town long?” Suga asks, as if Daichi could just be referring to not calling before showing up here, instead of all the unanswered voice messages Suga left for him when they were eighteen.

“Just since the weekend,” Daichi tells him. “I started work here this week, at the middle school.”

“Ah,” Suga says, and then nothing, just those brown eyes that seem darker than they used to be.

“I’m....sorry,” Daichi says again. “I’m sorry, Suga. I didn’t know how to be your friend. I didn’t want to try.”

“And now you do?” Suga says it evenly, but Daichi can’t help feeling it like a jab.

“No, I...I mean...I don’t expect that. I just....can we talk? Even just right here?”

Suga nods, stepping closer to Daichi, and then past him to lean against the wall that lines the school’s front steps. Daichi stands next to him, not too close.

“I didn’t understand,” he says, looking at his shoes. “When we left for college, and you asked me if I did...I didn’t.”

“We were in a bubble, Daichi,” Suga says. “It’s not that I wanted to be away from you, I just...I worried that—”

“I know,” Daichi says. “I get it now. You were the only thing I could see. When I didn’t have you I couldn’t see anything for myself, and that’s...I should have had the world ahead of me.”

“You _did_ have the world ahead of you,” Suga says. “I didn’t want to make you miss it.”

Daichi nods. “I found it,” he says. “It took me a while. It took me longer to realize I could have done all the same things and still had you in my life, and by then....well. You know how long it’s been.”

“I do,” Suga says. “Six and a half years is a long time to worry that you never knew how much I loved you.”

Daichi attempts to swallow, and fails. He tries again and it’s audible in the quiet between them.

“You were all I could see, too, Daichi. I was so afraid...I was _so_ afraid that one day you’d look at me and see that I wasn’t really anything.”

“I _wouldn’t_ have,” Daichi says, shaking his head. He still can’t look at Suga, so he directs his quiet vehemence towards the trees across from them. “I couldn’t have.”

“Maybe not,” Suga says. “I don’t know if I did the right thing. I thought...I thought we’d still stay close and have the chance to see.”

So Suga, in his fear, took away the certainty of their future together, and Daichi, in his heartbreak, took away the possibility of it.

He brushes his tears away with the heel of his hand and laughs a little. “I think I was probably too stupid for you then,” he says.

“And now?” Suga asks, and something in his voice, the catch of self consciousness, causes Daichi to really look at him, finally. To take in every beautiful angle of his face, and the softness in his eyes.

“Still a little stupid,” he says carefully, honestly. “But I’ve grown.”

“You have,” Suga says, eyes moving over him quickly. The twitch of his lips makes Daichi’s heart swell, because it’s been so long, but it’s still so, so familiar, the way it feels when Suga teases him. “But you were never stupid, Daichi.”

“I let go of you.”

“I did, too. As if I was going to magically discover my identity if I didn’t have a boyfriend.”

“Did you?” Daichi asks. “I guess I don’t really know anything about you now. Who are you, without me?” He says this last bit as lightly as he can.

“I’m a lot of things,” Suga says. “But I’ve never _really_ been without you, I don’t think. In a way.”

Daichi has never quite put this together before, but hearing it now, he realizes the same is true for him. Again, he doesn’t know if it’s because Suga is Suga, or because Suga was first, but he’s been with Daichi, occupying part of his mind, part of his heart, since the moment they met.

Standing here with him now though, feeling the _rightness_ of their proximity, he thinks that it has always been because Suga is Suga.

“That makes it sound like I’ve been haunting you,” Daichi says, because at twenty-five years old, he’s not sure if he ever stopped being in love with Suga, and he needs to say something more casual than what he’s feeling.

“No,” Suga says with a little laugh. “It’s not haunting when I never wanted you to leave. I think...” Daichi watches him shake his head and turn away. He can just catch the pink that has touched the edge of Suga’s cheekbone.

“What?” Daichi asks.

Suga worries his lip between his teeth for a little while. Daichi is back on Suga’s bedroom floor with their college applications spread before them, having just told Suga he was all he wanted.

“I think,” Suga says, turning back to Daichi, “that I’m really glad I came back to Miyagi. And that you came back to Miyagi.”

“I’m glad, too, but that’s not what you were going to say,” Daichi says, because maybe he doesn’t know all of the things Suga is now, but he still knows him.

Suga laughs again and loosens his tie, tugging at it until the loop hangs low around his collar. “You just came out of nowhere, Daichi. I wasn’t emotionally prepared for this. I have a lot of things I’ve wanted to say to you, but...”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Daichi says.

“I just don’t know how much I _can_ say, after this long, without sounding crazy.”

“I’m here,” Daichi points out, “after this long. I told Asahi it was all in the past, and then I turned around and came here.”

Suga is quiet for a long time, absorbing everything Daichi has said indirectly with those words. When he turns to Daichi again, he is seventeen. Bright eyes, and lips that hold a secret that is always for Daichi to learn. “Do you want to come see my classroom?” he asks. “I hide chocolate in my desk.”

Daichi doesn’t trust himself to say anything, so he nods his head. He follows Suga into the school, down the halls that still smell familiar, like chalk and body spray and boundless hope.

He fits himself into a desk near the front of Suga's classroom, and Suga sits down at his desk with his fingers steepled in front of him, just touching his chin.

“Yes, sensei?” Daichi asks, and Suga laughs.

“Come sit with me,” he says.

Daichi gets up, without ease or grace, because he has grown, and the students’ desks have not, and then sits on the edge of Suga’s desk. He takes the pocky stick Suga hands him, but doesn't put it in his mouth.

“I like my life,” Suga says. “I've loved the places I've been, and the people I've met, and I feel...I feel like I have a good sense of who I am, even if I don't have it all figured out.”

“I’m glad,” Daichi says, because he never wanted Suga to be miserable without him. He wasn't miserable without Suga either, as time passed, but he also never stopped feeling his absence. Or, paradoxically, his presence. “I’m glad you're happy, Suga.”

Suga smiles at him and takes a bite of his own candy. “I’m content,” he says, after he's chewed slowly and swallowed. “But I think....I think the happiest version of me has always been the one that had you beside him.”

“But...I made you feel...small.”

“ _No,_ Daichi, I felt small because I _was_ small. Because all I knew was this town and how much I loved you.”

“I guess I still don't really get it,” Daichi says. He wishes that he did. He doesn't understand what Suga means by any of this, he just knows his heart keeps flaring with hope and he doesn't know if he should let it.

“It was never because of you. You were perfect, I just found you so soon...I didn't feel ready.”

“I should have been patient,” Daichi says, but he doesn't know that he could have been. He would have been waiting instead of living, and except for the lack of Suga in it, he likes where his life has ended up.

“Let's not do the should haves,” Suga says. “Let's just...”

He trails off and eats another pocky stick. Daichi eats the one that he's been holding, then licks off the melted chocolate left on his fingertips.

“What about now?” he asks.

“I still don't think we should torture ourselves with should haves,” Suga says, with teasing lips and eyes that are saying something much more honest, though Daichi isn't sure yet what it is.

He shakes his head and asks, “Are you ready now?” because at twenty-five, he's learned that it didn't kill him to put his heart on the line before, and for the man in front of him, he’s willing to risk it again.

“You might not like me anymore.”

“I doubt it,” Daichi says. “Let me find out.”

“I have a cat now.  And I drink pretentious coffee.”

“I like cats,” Daichi says. “And you’ve always been a little pretentious. I like that, too.”

Suga’s smile, when it spreads across his face, is the north star. The brightest thing Daichi can see, the direction he knows he needs to go.

Suga says, “Daichi,” and then nothing else, and when he gets to his feet Daichi mirrors him, because Suga isn't his only path, but he's still the one he wants to follow.

His cheeks are already wet by the time Suga’s arms are around him, but Suga's shoulder is there for him to press his face against, and they're both crying, so it doesn't feel lonely. It feels like an understanding, a promise.

Suga doesn’t fit quite the same way in his arms—he’s stronger and a little taller, with unfamiliar angles that are new but not wrong, and the same smile he fell in love with tucked against Daichi’s neck.

The future is waiting for them, vast and unknowable and alive with possibilities, and they hold each other with no intention of letting go.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm [ellessey-writes](http://ellessey-writes.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and you can find the rest of my AO3 DaiSuga works [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=836528&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&user_id=Ellessey).


	5. Secrets/Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Daichi turns away from the classroom door before his professor can see him standing out there, and heads back the way he came. There’s no way he can tell Suga, but if he were even going to consider it, he couldn’t do it in the middle of a shithole, which is essentially all his room is right now.
> 
> Also, he doesn’t have spare sheets, which means he needs to wash the ones on his bed. Because Suga is going to be there tomorrow night. And Daichi is in love with him. And he’s very concerned now that there would be something terrible about letting Suga be in his bed without knowing that.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T  
> Tags: Texting, Confessions, Friends to Lovers

**Daichi:** kuroo I have a problem

 **Kuroo** : is it that you forgot to pick me up this morning?

 **Daichi:**  .......  
**Daichi:** shit im sorry  
**Daichi:** did you make it to class?

 **Kuroo:** yes, worthless friend  
**Kuroo:** after running the entire way and arriving in a disheveled panting heap 5 minutes late for history  
**Kuroo:** how did you fucking forget me???

 **Daichi:** so  
**Daichi:** you know suga

 **Kuroo:** of course i know suga. high school was less than a year ago sawamura  
**Kuroo:** what about him?  
**Kuroo:** is it that you’re in love with him? because i already know that

 **Daichi:** wtf? you do?

 **Kuroo:** yes christ of course i do...i’ve just been waiting for you to do something about it  
**Kuroo:** what’s going on? and hurry up i need to get to my next class

 **Daichi:** okay. so he’ll be transferring here next term, right? i told you that?

 **Kuroo:** mhm..you’re about to be cut off and then i’ll be even more pissed off at you for not getting to the point

 **Daichi:** are you really pissed? you could have just said fuck it and left without me

 **Kuroo:** but i’m a good person, and also i didn’t realize how late you were.  
**Kuroo:** i’m really only mildly pissed off now...what the fuck happened?

 **Daichi:** okay he texted this morning and asked if he can stay with me this weekend...he has to talk to an advisor and get some last minute registration stuff done, so he’ll be on campus tomorrow

 **Kuroo:** ???? That's it?  
**Kuroo:** So what??

 **Daichi:** so what?? I haven’t seen him in months and he’s going to be here! tomorrow! in my shitty tiny room that i need to clean  
**Daichi:** and he’s going to like...sleep there  
**Daichi:** and he doesn’t know i’m in love with him

 **Kuroo:** so it’s time to remedy that

 **Daichi:** he’s my best friend kuroo  
**Daichi:** i can’t tell him

 **Kuroo:** correction. *I* am your best friend now. so go ahead and let that ship sail with suga and just tell him you wanna bone him

 **Daichi:** i DO want to bone him...and he’s going to be in my BED

 **Kuroo:** I gotta hike to calculus now. get your shit together daichi

 **Daichi:** i’m sorry i forgot you...i got really distracted

 **Kuroo:** yes i see that now...i forgive you. get some clean sheets on your bed and get ready to tell him the truth

 **Daichi:** i can’t  
**Daichi:** kuroop  
**Daichi:** kuroo  
**Daichi:** i’m not done freaking out you asshole get back here

Kuroo seems to have put his phone away for the walk across campus to the math department, so Daichi puts his own phone in his pocket and stands outside his next class. He could go in and continue to obsess over how deep the layer of old notes and dirty clothes on his floor is, or he could skip economics and run back to the dorms so he can at least make some progress.

It’s a difficult decision. Daichi doesn’t like to miss class, but he also doesn’t have a lot of time. Suga will arrive in the morning, and Daichi has a study group this afternoon and an evening class after that.

His phone buzzes and he whips it out, hoping Kuroo has made it to calculus already, and has some amazing advice that will help him chill the fuck out.

 **Suga:** daichiiiii...i found our yearbook from first year! i’m bringing it with me so we can mock ourselves and everyone else  
**Suga:** is there anything else i can bring? food? wine?

 **Daichi:** you hoping to get me drunk?

 **Suga:** i would pay good money to see you drunk

 **Daichi:** just come, you dork. you don’t need to bring anything  
**Daichi:** i’m looking forward to seeing you

 **Suga:** me toooooo! i’m going to pack!!

Images of Suga getting ready to spend the weekend with him fill Daichi's mind. He _could_ just come for the day and go back home, but he’s _staying._ With Daichi. For two nights.

Daichi turns away from the classroom door before his professor can see him standing out there, and heads back the way he came. There’s no way he can tell Suga, but if he were even going to _consider_ it, he couldn’t do it in the middle of a shithole, which is essentially all his room is right now. Also, he doesn’t have spare sheets, which means he needs to wash the ones on his bed. Because Suga is going to be there tomorrow night. And Daichi is in love with him. And he’s very concerned now that there would be something terrible about letting Suga be in his bed without knowing that.

Daichi pushes that last thought away. He walks past Kuroo’s door, which is down the hall from his own (so, really, Kuroo could have just gotten up and banged on Daichi’s door when he didn’t swing by like he usually does), and pulls a post-it note out of his bag to slap on it. He takes a moment to scratch out a shitty drawing of a cat with a sad face, because he knows Kuroo spends his mornings reading, counting on Daichi’s arrival to let him know when it’s time to go, and he really is sorry for disrupting that routine.

He cleans up the trash in his room and shovels anything that can go in a washing machine into a pile, adding his sheets, blanket, and pillow cases to the stack. His hands focus on the tasks in front of him—getting laundry going, wrestling the little window over his bed open to let fresh air in—but his thoughts are miles away. They’re in Miyagi, where he and Suga met in their first year of high school. Where they shared lunches and jokes and study notes. Where Daichi watched his best friend grow from a round-cheeked sixteen year old, to an eighteen year old with strong, lean arms and the kind of smile Daichi would just about kill to have directed at him.

It never seemed like the right time, to tell Suga how much he thought about kissing him, and when graduation came and went Daichi didn’t have to feel as guilty about lusting after Suga, because he didn’t get to see him nearly as much. He thought the distance would put an end to the lusting, actually.

It did not. Because they still talk, a lot. They text throughout the week, and they call each other on weekends, and Daichi has found that he doesn’t actually have to see Suga to wind up thinking about him when he should be sleeping, he just has to hear his voice.

So the crush has not died off. The lust is still rampant, probably more so, now that college has exposed Daichi to more things to fantasize about. And he tries not to think about Suga that way, he really does, but just _wanting_ to think about him that way feels like a betrayal, because Suga doesn’t know.

And he’s going to be in Daichi’s bed. And Daichi...

 **Daichi:** goddammit i’m really gonna have to tell him aren’t i

 **Suga:** tell him what?  
**Suga:** and who? what did i miss?

Daichi’s heart stops. Literally. Probably not _actually_ literally, but it feels that way. His entire body goes hot, hot, hot, like he’s stepped into fire, and then it passes suddenly and his heart is beating again. His brain starts to function. He remembers now that he messaged Suga again while he was still at school, that Kuroo was not the last person he talked to. His stupid fingers, that just shot that text message out without paying attention, are trembling and slow now.

 **Daichi:** whoops...nothing, soirry, meant to send tht to kuroop  
**Daichi:** shit sorry that’s a lot of typos

 **Suga:** that is a lot of typos, daichi...my god.  
**Suga:** why does kuroop get the juicy gossip and not me?  
**Suga:** my curiosity has been aroused now

 **Daichi:** it’s really nothing..go pack. I’m getting my room cleaned up so i won’t be ashamed when you get here

 **Suga:** so you were cleaning your room and suddenly needed to tell kuroo thaaaaat....you’d have to tell me how gross your room was?  
**Suga:** i’ve seen your bedroom plenty of times daichi..i don’t expect it to have improved now that you live in a dorm with no mother to scold you

 **Daichi:** lol...that was not it

 **Suga:** is it me though? am i the one you have to tell something?

 **Daichi:** no

 **Suga:** then who?

 **Daichi:** no one suga  
**Daichi:** just a guy from class  
**Daichi:** we’re doing a group project and he’s not pulling his weight, that’s all

 **Suga:** ah  
**Suga:** okay  
**Suga:** i’ll let you get back to pretending you don’t live in filth  
**Suga:** which is unnecessary

Daichi can’t bring himself to respond. He lied to Suga and he hates that, and he feels like Suga _knows._ Not only that Daichi was lying, but also, somehow, that he knows exactly what he was trying to cover up.

 **Daichi:** shit kuroo i accidentally texted suga instead of you  
**Daichi:** literally about him

 **Kuroo:** sldkjglskdfj...what did you say????

 **Daichi:** i just said i was going to have to tell him  
**Daichi:** and then had to lie to him and say i was talking about a guy from a group project that doesn't exist

 **Kuroo:** dude....if you’ve accepted that you have to tell him, why didn’t you just TELL him?

Daichi doesn’t have a good answer for that, other than something embarrassing about being afraid, and a new message from Suga pops up before he can formulate a reply for Kuroo.

 **Suga** : are you sure it’s okay that i’m coming?

 **Daichi:** what? of course it is

 **Suga:** i don’t want to put you out at all, you really don’t have to clean anything up for me

Daichi starts to type a response to Suga, and is interrupted by another message from Kuroo ( _Dai? Are you melting down? Are you in class?_ ) that he reads quickly before going back to Suga.

 **Daichi:** you’re not putting me out! i’m really glad you’re coming  
**Daichi:** let me be a good host for you

New messages from both Suga and Kuroo arrive at the same time, and Daichi’s head is starting to spin. He needs to end one of these conversations.

 **Daichi:** I’m fine kuroo i’m just...aslfjdslkd. i’m scared  
**Daichi:** and i don’t want to talk about suga by text anymore ok? what if i’d sent him that message about wanting to bone him?

 **Suga:** daichi?  
**Suga:** is this a joke?

Daichi’s heart doesn’t stop this time. It disappears. There’s a vacuum in his chest and all he can do is hope that it will swallow him entirely.

He flips between his conversations with Kuroo and Suga, confirming that he really did send those last two messages to the wrong person. Again.

 **Daichi:** Kuroo. Fuck me.

 **Kuroo:** what is going on???

Daichi screenshots his conversation with Suga and sends it to Kuroo.

 **Kuroo:** oh my fucking god  
**Kuroo:** stop texting me right now and go fix that  
**Kuroo:** now

 **Daichi:** i can’t believe this. what a horrible way to tell him

 **Kuroo:** it’s too late now  
**Kuroo:** go...omg i can’t believe you did that  
**Kuroo:** sorry i just...oh my GOD..go!!

Daichi closes his text messages, with Kuroo and with Suga, and presses both hands over his face hard enough that he can barely breathe. He lets the air flood into his lungs after a minute and tries to think, tries to find the right words to somehow apologize and confess to Suga all at once.

He calls him, because he is not texting anyone again, ever. And because Suga deserves so much more than a shitty text message confession.

“Hi,” Suga says. There's a noisy buzz around him and his voice is small and uncertain. Daichi feels sick knowing he’s made him uncomfortable.

“Suga, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry. It wasn’t a joke. I was texting you both at the same time and I didn’t mean to send that to you, obviously. I’m—”

“So you...you actually told Kuroo you want to....bone me?”

“I’m sorry. It wasn’t like...I don’t talk about you like that, I swear, I just...I’m so sorry. This isn’t how I wanted...I don't—”

“Daichi...calm down,” Suga says. “I’m not upset, I just want to understand. Were you talking about me the first time, too? When you said you have to tell him?”

“Yes. Suga, I...fuck, I wish I could do this in person.”

Suga is quiet, but Daichi’s heart has resurfaced and is pounding loud enough to fill the room.

“Is it a good thing, that you want to do in person?” Suga asks.

“Is it....that depends? I guess?” Daichi says. “On how repulsed you feel right now...by what I said.”

“I’m not repulsed,” Suga says. “Do you want to talk when I get there?”

“I can’t wait until tomorrow...that’s too long.”

“I’m....actually on my way there now. I was going to surprise you.”

Daichi finds this information difficult to process, even though it does explain the white noise coming over the line. He isn't ready for this. His room isn't ready, his words aren't, his heart might not be either, depending on what Suga says. _Not repulsed_ could definitely be improved upon. “You’re...what?”

“My train gets in at 5:30,” Suga says. “I know you have class, I was just going to be waiting by your room and...I don’t have to though, if you'd rather I—”

“ _No..._ yes, of course. I’m glad you’re on your way. I’ll pick you up. I’ll be there at 5:30, okay?”

“Okay....Daichi?”

“Yeah?”

“Don't be scared.”

Daichi is about to say that he's not (even though he is), but then he remembers the text message that was supposed to go to Kuroo and went to Suga instead.

“Suga...”

“You don’t need to be scared. I’ll see you soon,” Suga says, and then the call disconnects.

Daichi feels very, very stupid, but also very, very hopeful.

He doesn't have time to do anything but retrieve his laundry and dump it on his stripped bed before he runs to meet his study group. He’ll definitely be skipping his night class now, so he doesn't want to miss this, too. And mostly he doesn't want to be alone with his thoughts.

Of course, his other best friend is there to confront him with them anyway.

 **Kuroo:** hey....you okay?  
**Kuroo:** i’m really sorry I said anything about boning Suga...you wouldn't have said that if I hadn't  
**Kuroo:** have you talked to him yet? is it okay?

 **Daichi:** it's not your fault. he's getting here tonight...5:30. we’re gonna talk then

 **Kuroo:** that's good!  
**Kuroo:** you didn't talk at all yet though? aren't you nervous? he doesn't want to let you down gently does he?

 **Daichi:** Jesus Kuroo  
**Daichi:** of course i’m nervous, but i hadnt thought about that. maybe he does??  
**Daichi:** i told him I wished we could do this in person and he said we could wait till he got here

 **Kuroo:** oh! well if you suggested it it's probably not that! sorry!

 **Daichi:** god damn..what the hell kind of friend are you?

 **Kuroo:** an honest one?  
**Kuroo:** like...if i wanted to nail you (which for the record i don't) you know i would totally tell you

 **Daichi: ..**.that's good to know  
**Daichi:** i gotta go okay? I’ll text you later. maybe. i might smash my phone with a hammer

 **Kuroo:** after today I would probably have to support that  
**Kuroo:** good luck bro

 **Daichi:** thanks

The walk to the train station feels endless even though it's really very short. Daichi just wants to see Suga, to know that he definitely doesn't hate him for talking to Kuroo so crudely about him. He wants to say all the things that he should have said a long time ago so this never would have happened.

He’s awkward and uncertain when Suga steps off the train, but his friend slams into him and hugs him tightly, just like he always has, and Daichi feels his hope grow further and his fear subside just a little bit more. He lets himself breathe in the familiar scent of Suga's shampoo, and Suga lets him do it. He smiles at Daichi when he steps back.

Daichi thinks that maybe this could be the best day of his life instead of the worst.

“Do you want to get something to eat?” he asks, grabbing Suga’s bag only for Suga to take it back and swing it over his own shoulder. “Or just...”

“I think...we should talk,” Suga says. “Wherever you want to do that.”

“Right,” Daichi says, and he knows this is what they should do, it’s what he _wants_ to do, but he also feels vaguely like throwing up, both from good nerves and bad. “Okay. My room then?”

Suga nods and they start to walk together, Suga taking over the silence after about half a block, chatting about his train ride and the people sitting near him. He’s clever and warm and funny as always, and Daichi wonders what the hell he was thinking, acting like this thing he has for Suga could ever just fade away. It’s not going anywhere, and he’s terrible at lying, so whatever Suga says when they get this all out in the open, this is for the best.

They walk up the three flights of stairs to Daichi’s level, past Kuroo’s door with the apologetic cat doodle, and then they are in Daichi’s room, where the evening sun falls through the open window onto a heap of clean clothes and sheets.

“I, uh...didn’t have time to—”

“It’s fine,” Suga says, stepping past Daichi and flopping down onto the heap in the middle of the bare mattress. “This is perfect. Smells good.”

Daichi looks down at him, watches him shuffle the laundry pile until he can nestle against it, like a bird in a nest. He’s so goddamn fucking cute.

“Daichi?”

“You’re so goddamn fucking cute,” Daichi says.

For the record, this was not his plan.

He was going to start by apologizing again, and then he’d talk about how much Suga’s friendship means to him, and how he’s slowly grown to care about him more and more, and probably some more mature and thoughtful things after that, ideally. But instead...this has happened.

Suga blinks up at him. “Oh,” he says, and then this smile that is all surprise and delight and pink cheeks takes over his face, and Daichi knows that anything he says after this is going to be okay. “Sit down?”

Daichi gets on the bed and they sit facing each other, cross-legged. Suga painted gold in the evening sun, and Daichi staring. He wonders if he should try to sort out his thoughts, or just keep letting words come out as they will.

“That...wasn’t exactly what I meant to say,” he says. “But it’s true. I...I’m really crazy about you, Suga.”

Suga bites his lip, and his face is warm and smiling. Daichi’s heart is beating too loud and fast again, but it’s not fear anymore, it’s something much bigger and brighter.

“I love being friends with you and I didn’t want to mess that up. I thought...I don’t know what I thought. I didn’t mean to fall for you, I guess, but...I did, and I was just afraid to tell you.”

“But not afraid to tell Kuroo,” Suga says. He’s still smiling so beautifully that Daichi can’t help but smile back at him, even though he knows he’s being teased.

“Shut up,” he says. “Oh my God...I didn’t even tell him. Literally for the first time today he just dropped the fact that he knows I like you, and he said I should tell you I want.....what I said, before. When I meant to text him.”

“I can’t recall precisely,” Suga says. “It was something very romantic, wasn’t it?”

“Suga...” Daichi covers his face with his hands. He will never, ever live this down.

“Daichi,” Suga says, warm fingers wrapping around Daichi’s wrists and pulling them down. “You don’t know how happy it made me to know you think about me like that.”

“How happy did it make you?” Daichi asks, even though he doesn’t really need to, because he can see Suga’s face.

“So happy. So beyond words and comprehension happy. I would have just told you that on the phone, but you were so upset and I wanted it to be a happy thing. I really wanted to get to see your face when we said this stuff, and I...”

He slides his hands up from Daichi’s wrists to his shoulders, shifting onto his knees so the space between them lessens.

Daichi has grasped, through all of this, that Suga is more than _not repulsed_ by Daichi's attraction to him. He understands on some level that the way his face has glowed throughout Daichi's confession has to mean Suga feels similarly.

But the reality of it, the way Suga’s hands are on him in a way that is not just casual and friendly, is hitting him so hard he feels like his ribs may crack.

“I wanted to be able to do this,” Suga says, one hand slipping to the back of Daichi’s neck and pulling him forward.

 _This_ is a kiss. _This_ is something Daichi has thought about a lot—one of the few things he’s allowed himself to fantasize about in detail—but he knows now that he wasn’t getting it right at all. There was no way for him to know just what it would feel like to have Suga’s fingers threaded through his hair, or how warm his breath would be on his cheek. He couldn’t know that Suga would taste like caramel and chocolate from his snack on the train, or that he’d laugh softly when Daichi tries to get closer to him and bumps his lip on Suga’s teeth.

These little things are what make it real. They’re all the things Daichi will remember when he replays this moment in his mind. Soft lips pressed to his again and again, and everything smelling like sunlight and clean cotton.

His hands are on Suga’s hips when they pull apart, which he doesn’t quite remember doing, but it seems like a very good decision. Suga’s shirt has lifted a little and Daichi is touching bare skin.

“To be clear,” Daichi says, pausing to pass his tongue over his lips because they feel tingly and slow and wonderful, “I don’t _just_ want to....to..”

He blushes and Suga smiles. “Bone me?” he says.

“Right,” Daichi says. He has lowered his forehead to Suga’s shoulder, ostensibly to hide his shame, but also because he _can,_ and it’s so nice to just be able to do this. “I want to date you.”

“I would love to date you,” Suga says. “As well as the other stuff.”

Daichi sits back up properly so he can kiss him again in response to this. He tastes a little less like chocolate this time, and a little more like something new and unnameable that must just be Suga.

“I’m sorry I lied before,” Daichi says after. “The first time I fucked up.”

Suga’s smile, which had become very hazy and soft, immediately widens. “Daichi...how on earth did you do that? _Twice?”_

Daichi shakes his head. There is no explanation.

“I would have died if I were you!”

“Oh my God, Suga...time stopped. I lost five years off my life.”

“My poor Daichi,” Suga says, holding Daichi’s face between his hands and kissing his forehead, sort of. Mostly he’s just smiling against it. “You’re so sweet. You even washed your sheets for me.”

“Didn’t actually manage to make the bed though,” Daichi points out.

“I like it like this,” Suga says. “It won’t matter if we make a mess.”

“Wow,” Daichi says, even though he’s extremely pleased by the way Suga just _said_ this, like this is normal for them now.

“What? You can say you want to bo—”

“Stop! Oh my God just stop saying that.”

Suga stops, because he is laughing too hard to continue. Daichi flops onto his back and waits for him to wear himself out.

“I’m sorry,” Suga says eventually, stretching out next to Daichi, _right_ next to him, so he’s pressed to his side, his hand on his chest. “It was so horrible I don’t think I can let it go.”

“Try.”

Suga kisses his cheek, which Daichi suspects means _no,_ but then he says, “Fine. So you can express your desire to engage in sexual activity with me, but I can’t do the same?”

“That almost sounds worse?” Daichi says, and Suga cackles.

“What we _could_ do...is stop talking about it,” he suggests.

“We should do that, yeah.”

“Yeah,” Suga agrees, and when he leans even closer the only place for him to go is halfway on top of Daichi.

Daichi pulls him the rest of the way, and they stop talking long enough for quite a bit of laundry to get knocked to the floor, and for the patches of sunlight to be replaced by the hazy glow of streetlamps.

When they do talk again Daichi’s voice is a little rough, and Suga’s is low and soft, and Daichi doesn’t have to lie awake thinking about Suga, or very purposefully not thinking about him. He gets to stay awake holding his hand and telling him all the things he’s ever wanted to instead.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting!! I can't believe there are just two more days after this! Just a little warning that the rating will be going up tomorrow as a result of Day 6's content.... 8)
> 
> I'm [ellessey-writes](http://ellessey-writes.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and you can find the rest of my AO3 DaiSuga works [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=836528&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&user_id=Ellessey).


	6. Old

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'It’s a toss-up, when Suga finds Daichi’s old high school volleyball jersey, as to whether he wants to surprise Daichi by wearing it when he returns from work, or torment him before he can get home. There are merits to either option, of course, but Suga has a whole hour to wait, and he has already put the jersey on, so…
> 
> The first picture he sends is fairly innocent. Just a close up shot of the tops of his thighs, with one hand pulling the jersey down, to make it clear that if it wasn’t covering him, nothing else would be.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: E  
> Tags: Explicit Sexual Content
> 
> I was limited to the very beginning of the fic for a quote because all the rest is smut ╮(︶▽︶)╭
> 
> (Didn't want to load up the tags with filth since the rest of the week is pretty pure, but further tagging for this chapter would include Teasing, Sex Toys, Dirty Talk, Clothing Kink, Overstimulation, and Barebacking)

It’s a toss-up, when Suga finds Daichi’s old high school volleyball jersey, as to whether he wants to surprise Daichi by wearing it when he returns from work, or torment him before he can get home. There are merits to either option, of course, but Suga has a whole hour to wait, and he has already put the jersey _on,_ so…

The first picture he sends is fairly innocent. Just a close up shot of the tops of his thighs, with one hand pulling the jersey down, to make it clear that if it wasn’t covering him, nothing else would be.

 **Daichi:** suga....you seem to have misplaced your pants  
**Daichi:** and your underwear i suspect

 **Suga:** it’s such a shame, isn’t it?

 **Daichi:** why are you sending me naughty pictures at work?  
**Daichi:** and what are you wearing? is that your old jersey?

 **Suga:** no

Suga tugs at the front of the jersey so it tightens against his torso and rises up in the back, then snaps another picture. This time of his reflection in the bathroom mirror, so he can capture the bold “1” between his shoulder blades, and also the swell of his ass just underneath the hem of the shirt.

 **Suga:** _*image attached*_

 **Daichi:** oh  
**Daichi:** alksjfslkjg  
**Daichi:** you shit..why didnt you wait till i got home??

 **Suga:** well daichi  
**Suga:** i couldn’t be wet and ready and wearing your shirt when you got here if i did that, could i?

 **Daichi:** no no no  
**Daichi:** wait please  
**Daichi:** let me watch okay? I just have 45 minutes left

Suga has zero intention of waiting, but he quite likes the fact that Daichi is already saying please.

 **Daichi:** are you waiting?  
**Daichi:** seriously. sit down and put your hands in your lap until i get there

 **Suga:** oops  
**Suga:** _*image attached*_

 **Daichi:** goddammit suga stop it  
**Daichi:** i have to go talk to someone and now i’m hard

 **Suga:** stop opening my messages then?

 **Daichi:** i’m getting you back for this

 **Suga:** please do  
**Suga:** _*image attached*_

 **Daichi:** suga  
**Daichi:** listen  
**Daichi:** tables are turning right now

 **Suga:** are they?

Suga pauses in working a finger inside himself and waits to see how exactly Daichi sees this happening. He likes his current plan, but he’ll give this a chance. He’s always open to suggestions.

 **Daichi:** yes  
**Daichi:** i want you to fuck yourself until you’re ready for me, and then you stop. do not come.  
**Daichi:** i want you on the bed with your ass up and your hands behind your head when i get home  
**Daichi:** don’t touch yourself, don’t take that jersey off  
**Daichi:** you stay there and wait just like that until i get home and take care of you

 **Suga:** and what happens if i don’t?

 **Daichi:** nothing, i’m not threatening you  
**Daichi:** but  
**Daichi:** if you do  
**Daichi:** i’ll wear your jersey next time

 **Suga:** oh my god?

 **Daichi:** i’ll open myself up for you and spread my legs and let you fuck me until i come all over it

 **Suga** : oh my god it will be so tight on yoooou

 **Daichi:** yes it will

 **Suga** : i love you so much  
**Suga:** i’ll be good come home soon

 **Daichi:** be ready

Suga is ready in no time. He knows he should slow down because Daichi still has the rest of his shift, plus the train ride home, but he has _very_ good images in his head, and he’s not feeling particularly patient. He lies on his back and fingers himself roughly until he’s three fingers deep and his cock is stiff against his stomach, dripping slowly on Daichi’s shirt. He tries to go a little longer after that, but his phone buzzes, and he regretfully pauses to pick it up with his clean hand.

 **Daichi:** I know you’re open by now  
**Daichi:** let’s see

Suga scowls. Of course Daichi knows he didn’t pace himself at all. He holds his phone out to take an obscene picture of his fingers buried deep inside himself, and sends it to Daichi.

 **Daichi:** perfect. now get on your knees and wait

 **Suga:** you really fucked with my plans today sawamura

 **Daichi:** or do whatever you want and forfeit fucking me in your shirt ╮( ˘ ､ ˘ )╭  
**Daichi:** your choice

 **Suga:** hurry up

 **Daichi:** i’m at work suga...i’ll get there when i can

 **Suga:** i will fuck you so hard daichi

 **Daichi:** i’m counting on it. but not before i fuck you raw

Suga has to slip his fingers out immediately, because dirty talking Daichi does _things_ to him, and he is not going to come too soon and miss out on everything his boyfriend is promising. He turns over on his hands and knees, and resigns himself to dealing with his throbbing cock and the sudden emptiness in his ass until Daichi gets here.

It wouldn’t be so bad, probably he would start to get bored enough that his erection would flag, except that Suga doesn’t know if Daichi’s going to drag this out and make him wait, or come home early. Something about that anticipation, and the fact that he’s so embarrassingly arrayed now with his ass in the air in an empty apartment, keeps the tension in his stomach tight and hot.  

 **Daichi:** how are you doing?

 **Suga:** you better be on your way home right now

 **Daichi:** i might be a little late.  
**Daichi** : i want you to put a plug in so your hard work isn’t wasted  
**Daichi:** and send a picture

Suga is torn between cursing at Daichi and mentally patting him on the back, because he is playing this very, very well. He winces as he stretches his legs, and then selects one of the larger plugs from their drawer of toys, lubing it up and biting his lip as he presses it inside.

 **Suga:** _*image attached*  
_**Suga:** nice and full now, maybe i don’t need you after all

 **Daichi:** keep telling yourself that  
**Daichi:** i’ll be there as soon as i can...make sure that ass is the first thing i see when i come in.

As their bedroom is directly across the living room from their front door, this is actually a feasible request. Suga considers shutting the door so he can just lounge on the bed and get into position when he hears Daichi come in, but he knows that's not what Daichi wants, and that means he won’t get what _he_ wants either.

So he gets back on his knees, the plug shifting inside him as he leans over to rest his head on his folded arms, and he waits. And he waits some more. He squirms a little, after a while, and the plug shifts again. It’s painfully inadequate but it’s something, so he repeats the motion, circling his hips and rocking them slightly just to keep the sensation going.

The loose collar of Daichi’s shirt hangs down close to his face, and Suga doesn’t know how this can be, five years after high school, but he can _smell_ it. Sweat and deodorant and so many memories of Daichi holding him tight after a game, of him pressing Suga up against the lockers in the empty club room, grinding against him and whispering his name.

“Daichi,” Suga says, because he’s imagining the pressure in his ass is from his boyfriend, not a toy, and he wants more of it.

“ _God.”_

Suga almost lifts his head, but he catches himself and stays in place, fingers interlaced over the back of his neck. He doesn’t need to turn around to feel Daichi there now. His whole body is tingling with his eyes on him, knowing what he’s seeing. How completely exposed Suga is, except for the jersey slipping down his back. How his legs are spread and his voice is already breathy. How he’s aching, dripping, at just the thought of Daichi fucking him into the bed.

“How long have you been there?” he asks.

“I was outside the front door when I told you to wear a plug.”

“You’re terrible,” Suga says, with pride in his voice.

“Fuck, you look good.”

Suga thinks he looks desperate, but he supposes that’s about the same thing. He knows how good desperation looks on Daichi. He waits quietly, listening to the rustle of clothing as the other man undresses, anticipating Daichi’s touch on his skin, the feel of him tugging the plug out and filling Suga with something hot and real.

Daichi does not touch him, though. He gets on his back and scoots until he’s between Suga’s legs, broad shoulders forcing them wider apart.

“Dai…”

Daichi grips Suga’s legs and lifts his head, flicking his tongue over the tip of Suga’s cock.

“ _Ohh,”_ Suga sighs. “If you don't want me to come on your face you’d... _Daichi,_ fuck, God...you'd better stop soon.”

Daichi’s mouth is all around him, cheeks hollowed and tongue flat and firm against his length. He hums at the same time as he taps the base of the plug still tight in Suga’s ass, and Suga gasps, hips jerking, cock slipping deeper down Daichi’s throat.   

There’s a small choking sound from below him, and then the wet sound of Daichi releasing him.

“ _Sorry,”_ Suga says. “I didn’t—”

Daichi makes a dismissive noise and drags his fingers down Suga’s thighs, mouthing at his balls. “M’fine,” he says. “But if I’d swallowed with you in there…”

“I’m two seconds away from coming no matter what you do,” Suga warns him. It’s an exaggeration, of course, but not much of one.

“Okay, okay,” Daichi says distractedly, still pressing kisses between Suga’s legs, nipping at his thighs.

“ _Daichi!”_

“Okay! So impatient!” Daichi says with a laugh, slipping out from underneath Suga.

Suga just huffs and wiggles his hips a little, because they’ve been up in the air for what feels like hours at this point, and if Daichi wants him to remain in this position he’d better fucking make use of it. Immediately.

“God damn,” Daichi says, smoothing his palms slowly over Suga’s cheeks, and then tugging at the plug a little without actually trying to remove it.

Suga gives Daichi a warning glance over his shoulder.

“I could just fuck you with this,” Daichi says, unfazed. “Then give you my cock after, when you’re all sensitive and shivering.”

Suga shakes his head but says nothing, because he will kill Daichi if he does this, but at the same time just the thought makes his cock jump.

Daichi notices, of course, and taps on the plug again. “I love you like that...when your voice gets all broken? When you lose all your sense and your words and just cry for me.”

Suga whimpers. He wants to be fucked so badly, but Daichi talking to him like this is its own kind of bliss.

“What do you think?” Daichi asks, getting his fingers under the edge of the plug’s base and starting to pull it free. Suga whines once he’s empty, but after a moment of trailing the tip of the toy around Suga’s rim, Daichi pops it in again, pressing hard against it and drawing a soft moan from Suga. “Yeah,” Daichi says, twisting the plug and starting to pull it out again. “See, I like how you’re not as loud this way. I like knowing it’s only my cock that can really get you going.”

“Daichi, come on...” Suga says, holding back the _please_ that he was very close to adding. He’s not actually sure if he wants to beg Daichi to stop the teasing and fuck him properly. The old jersey is bunched up under his arms now, filling his head with the scent of want and sex and victory, and he’s losing focus. Becoming just this smell and Daichi’s hand steadying his hip, the plug being tugged out of him and pressed back in, over and over until Suga is writhing in Daichi’s grip, trying to lower his hips so he can rut against the bed.

Daichi slips the plug out and releases Suga’s hip, reaching to grip his cock. Suga is about to cry out something unintelligible—some plea for Daichi to move his hand, to fuck him, _anything—_ but then Daichi is in motion, smearing precum over the head of Suga’s cock with his palm, and then jerking it with quick, shallow tugs while he teases Suga’s entrance with the tip of the plug. Suga doesn’t have more than a second to grasp the fact that Daichi is actually going to make him come and then fuck him all over again, before his orgasm grips him and wipes out his thoughts, leaving him shuddering and mewling as Daichi plunges the plug back in and milks him dry with steady pulls of hand.

“Good, Koushi,” Daichi murmurs, lips brushing the small of Suga’s back, fingers trailing down to circle the base of the plug.

Suga can feel himself spasming around it still, cannot fathom the thought of Daichi even touching it to pull it out, much less replacing it with his cock, but Daichi doesn’t give him a chance to consider how he’ll handle this. The plug is out a moment later and Daichi is flipping him over, pressing his legs apart and looking down at him with eyes gone dark and hungry. He smoothes lube over his swollen length, then rubs what’s left on his palm over Suga’s cock, where it lies half hard against his stomach, over the folds of Daichi’s jersey.

“Yes or no?” Daichi asks, lifting Suga’s legs so his knees are bent over Daichi’s shoulders, and pressing the tip of his cock against his twitching hole.

Suga’s eyes well up at just that small point of contact. “Please,” he says, which could mean either one, really, and Daichi doesn’t work with grey areas.

“Koushi,” he says pushing just hard enough that Suga jumps at the pressure, spreading him but not pressing inside. “You have to say yes.”

He opens him just a little wider and Suga is too sensitive, he’s not ready for this, but he wants Daichi to take him anyway.

“Fuck, please, _yes,”_ he cries, and Daichi is already fucking into him while the plea lingers on his tongue, the thick head of his cock splitting him wider than the plug had, and then driving all the way in so Suga is finally filled completely.

He tries to curse again, but he sobs instead as the drag of friction against his overstimulated walls sets him on fire. Every time Daichi pounds him there’s a ferocious, perfect, agonizing ache at his center, streaking up his spine, vibrating in his bones. It rises in intensity until Suga’s vision blurs and he can’t tell if the entire world is shaking, or it’s just him, on the brink of shattering.

“Remember....our first...time,” Daichi says, his words broken with each powerful snap of his hips.

If Suga could do anything but moan and tremble, he would laugh, because only Daichi could get sentimental while also fucking the life out of someone.

“I was...wearing...this,” Daichi goes on, gripping a handful of the jersey in his fist, then wrapping his hand around Suga’s cock instead. “And you...you...”

And Suga was on top of him, clutching the fabric the way Daichi just did, shivering with the wonder of his body fitting around Daichi’s so perfectly. He remembers. There’s a reason the first thing he thought of when he found the shirt was exactly this—sweat and desire and Daichi’s skin against his.

He tries to nod, to show that he understands, but his cock is hard again and his body is screaming, zinging past overstimulation into something nameless and violent. He digs his nails into Daichi’s shoulders and cries, loud and broken, clenching around Daichi over and over until the other man is coming, too. Spilling hot inside him and groaning with each last uneven thrust.

“Koushi....Koushi, God...you feel so good,” he pants, but Suga is only raw nerves now, his lips quivering and useless for forming words, so he can’t say anything back. Daichi eases out of him slowly, and gently lowers Suga’s legs to the bed. “Need a little time?” he asks.

Suga nods his head slightly. His body is still buzzing and frayed. Even just the feeling of the sheets underneath his skin is itching at him.

“Okay,” Daichi says, leaning over to brush a barely there kiss over the edge of Suga’s lips. “I’ll be right back.”

Suga closes his eyes and waits to come down, listening to the familiar, comforting sounds of Daichi cleaning up. By the time the bed sinks next to him again he just feels sore, and satiated, and quietly euphoric.

“Well. Done,” he says, without opening his eyes.

“Yeah?” Daichi asks. His fingers brush lightly over Suga’s hip, hesitantly, massaging firmly only after Suga nods to confirm that being touched isn’t uncomfortable for him.

“So fucking good,” Suga confirms, even though this should be very obvious by his hoarse voice and tear streaked cheeks. “You’ve set the bar high for your turn.”

“You’re gonna destroy me,” Daichi says, and Suga nods. Daichi is carefully spreading Suga’s legs now, wiping between them with a warm, damp washcloth. He bites his lip so he won’t whine at the contact, but Daichi sees, and he pauses to kiss the side of Suga’s knee. “Almost done.”

When Suga’s skin has all been wiped clean Daichi helps him pull his shirt off, then covers them both with a clean sheet.

“Okay?” he asks.

“Mhm,” Suga hums. “I’m excellent. And thirsty.”

Daichi had anticipated this, of course. He hands Suga a cold bottle of water, and then, before he can ask for it, a square of chocolate.

“You’re sucking up,” Suga says, but Daichi is not. He is just this good. “How did you get here so fast from work?”

“I left early, as soon as I told you to wait for me. There was no way I could work like that...had to hide a boner the whole trip home.”

Suga snickers and offers Daichi the water, but not the rest of the chocolate that Daichi has set on Suga’s stomach in its little foil wrapper. That is all his.

“This was such a good find,” he says, nodding towards the jersey now crumpled up at the edge of the bed. “Mine was there, too...folded up under all our old school stuff.”

“I honestly don’t know how I’m going to get yours on,” Daichi says.

“It’ll be fantastic. You’ll look very bara.”

Daichi snorts and sets the water aside, curling into Suga so he can rest his head on his shoulder. “You looked amazing. I think you should wear that every day.”

“Just that and nothing else,” Suga says. “Perpetually missing my underwear.”

“I’d never go to work.”

“I wouldn’t either,” Suga points out. “Since I’d definitely get fired.”

“Special occasions, then,” Daichi says, his voice slipping into that deep, sleepy tone that works on Suga like a lullaby.

“Don't fall asleep yet,” Suga tells him. “I don't like eating alone.”

Daichi chuckles and snuggles a little harder into Suga's side. He talks with him quietly, with progressively less coherence, until the chocolate has all been consumed and Suga is ready to slip into sleep, too.

“You didn't have dinner, Daichi,” he says, carding his fingers through damp, dark hair.

“Nnh...later.”

“You’ll need your strength, you know.”

He's about to add something else, about how thoroughly he plans to wreck Daichi the next day, but his boyfriend breathes out a little sigh and Suga knows he won't even hear him. The solid, commanding sex god who just tore two orgasms out of Suga is now pink-cheeked and soft under Suga's arm.

“Get you a man who can do both,” Suga mumbles to himself, with not an ounce of shame.

Daichi’s lips curve up, so Suga did not go unheard, but he stands by what he said, and by how lucky he is to have gotten exactly that. He kisses Daichi’s head and murmurs filthy plans for him and the tight jersey, until Daichi is snoring quietly, and Suga’s voice runs out.

(But not his ideas. He has plenty of those.)

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one day left! Thank you for reading!
> 
> I'm [ellessey-writes](http://ellessey-writes.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and you can find the rest of my AO3 DaiSuga works [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=836528&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&user_id=Ellessey).


	7. Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> '“Why did we do this?” Daichi asks.
> 
> Suga grins at him, somehow looking relaxed and handsome, like a model from some kind of sports and wilderness catalogue, in the midst of this chaos.
> 
> “Because our captains’ privileges mean we get our own tent. And, you know...stars, and campfires, and camaraderie and all that.”
> 
> “Right,” Daichi says. He's pretty sure it was the private tent idea that got him pulled into this, but the other stuff would be nice too, if everyone could get their shit together and stop trying to sabotage it.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T  
> Tags: Camping, Karasuno, Team Bonding, Fluff, Kissing

“Where do we stand?” Daichi asks.

Suga seems hesitant to answer him, which isn't promising. “Um...” he says.

“Suga.”

Daichi's vice-captain exhales heavily, and then makes a fist and raises his thumb. It's not a thumbs-up, it's the beginning of a multi-point list of things that have gone wrong so far on their team camp out.

“Noya forgot the hotdog buns. Kageyama is having an allergic reaction to everything in sight. Asahi refuses to leave the ranger station because bears. Tanaka is in his underwear, I haven't asked why. And Hinata has either been murdered by Tsukki, or he's lost.”

“ _Lost?”_ Daichi repeats. “When did you last see him?”

“When Tsukki said, _if you flick one more pinecone at me I’m going to murder you.”_

“So he's dead then,” Daichi says, but he drops the stakes for the tent he was trying to assemble and gets to his feet.

“Probably,” Suga agrees. “I have Chikara and Narita looking for him in case he escaped.”

“Good,” Daichi says. “And Kageyama? Is he breathing?”

“He's....yes,” Suga says. “He’s sneezing every three seconds though. We have antihistamines in the first-aid kid, if we could just locate it.”

“Why did we do this?” Daichi asks.

Suga grins at him, somehow looking relaxed and handsome, like a model from some kind of sports and wilderness catalogue, in the midst of this chaos.

“Because our captains’ privileges mean we get our own tent. And, you know...stars, and campfires, and camaraderie and all that.”

“Right,” Daichi says. He's pretty sure it was the private tent idea that got him pulled into this, but the other stuff would be nice too, if everyone could get their shit together and stop trying to sabotage it. “Okay. Asahi has the first-aid kit. Tell him to man up and stop hiding. Or to at least hide in a tent so we’re sort of all together.”

“On it,” Suga says. “I assume you'll be...” He looks over his shoulder to where Tanaka is now standing proudly on top of a boulder, clad only in a pair of bright pink boxers patterned with pale pink flamingos.

“We could let them all get eaten by bears and not have to worry about being quiet tonight,” Daichi suggests.

“But then Ukai would kill _us,”_ Suga points out reasonably.

Daichi sighs and squeezes Suga’s hand quickly as he steps past him to go deal with Tanaka.

“Oi!” he calls up to him. “What are you doing?”

“Daichi-san!” Tanaka greets him with a grin. “Noya bet me I wouldn’t do this.”

And so he did it. This is unfortunately not surprising at all.

“Okay, well, you’ve done it,” Daichi says. “Pants back on and come help with the tents. Now.”

He growls that last part, just a little bit. It’s less satisfying than it would be if Suga hadn’t already left to get Asahi, because he always looks at Daichi _that way_ when he uses his authoritative captain’s tone, but the way Tanaka scrambles down immediately in response is its own reward.

Once Tanaka is dressed (mostly, his shirt is still unaccounted for) and fiddling with the poles of the second years’ tent with Kinoshita, Daichi calls Noya down from the tree he has inexplicably scaled and directs him to help out.

“I was trying to spot Hinata,” he says, once he’s on the ground again. “I’m sorry about the buns, Daichi-san.”

“It’s fine,” Daichi, says. “We’ll just make do without them. Did you see anything up there?”

“Pretty sure Narita and Ennoshita are closing in on him. Unless there’s some other orange thing wandering through the forest.”

“Good,” Daichi says. He can only imagine Asahi’s horror if there _was_ some mysterious creature roaming around, but Suga is with him, so Daichi focuses on making sure everyone has somewhere to sleep tonight. Yamaguchi is doing his best with the first years’ tent, but Kageyama is sneezing so aggressively that Tsukishima has backed away from him and given up trying to help, and nothing is really getting done. “Guys…”

“He’s _spitting_ on me,” Tsukishima says.

“I’m no—” Kageyama stops, holding a hand to his mouth, then continues when nothing happens. “Not _trying_ to, I ju—”

An explosive sneeze interrupts his words. Tsukishima wrinkles his nose and takes another step back, and Yamaguchi sighs.

“Maybe he should take Asahi’s tent, Daichi-san?” he suggests. “And Azumane can share with you and Sugawara-san?”

“What?  _No,”_ Daichi says, before he can get a handle on himself. “I mean...Suga is getting allergy medicine for you right now, Kageyama. You’ll be totally fine by the time we go to sleep.”

“I am not sharing with him if he’s still spewing mucus everywhere,” Tsukishima says, and Kageyama looks like he may just spit on him on purpose.

“He’ll be _fine,”_ Daichi repeats. “Tsukishima, go help Tanaka with his tent. Yamaguchi, I’ll help you. Kageyama.....go sit over there?” He waves towards the outskirts of their campsite, and Kageyama dolefully slouches over to continue his sneezing next to the boulder Tanaka was previously standing on.

Somehow they manage to get three tents set up by the time Chikara and Narita return with Hinata, who insists that he was just exploring and was certainly not lost. Suga and Asahi turn up not long after, and Daichi has to hold himself back from ripping the first aid-kit from Asahi’s backpack and flinging it at Kageyama.

“You need help with your tent, Asahi?” he asks, once the medication has been uncovered and Suga is helping Kageyama with it. Asahi, though he is not a captain, has brought his own tent, because he’s a good person and knows damn well how much Daichi and Suga are looking forward to having the opportunity for a whole night alone together.

“No, no...I can do it,” Asahi says. “But I was thinking...maybe I’ll just stay for the firepit part and then....go? Or stay at the ranger’s station?”

“Asahi....you’re not going to get eaten by a bear. You’re practically the size of a bear.”

“Yeah, but...I just...”

Daichi swallows a sigh before it can slip out. Asahi is afraid to sleep alone in the forest, and Daichi wants to be alone with Suga _so badly,_ but...

“Asahi-san?”

Daichi and Asahi turn to see their wild haired libero standing behind them.

“N-nishinoya?” Asahi says,

“I was, uh...I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing your tent with me?” Noya says. Daichi wants to hug him. He wants to buy him a million Garigari pops. “It’s just, there are five of us, and Tanaka kicks a lot in his sleep, and—”

“Oh!” Asahi says. “Yeah, of course. Of course, that would be fine.”

Daichi pretends to cough so he can press a hand over his mouth and cover his grin. Suga slaps his back.

“Okay there, Captain?”

“I’m great,” Daichi says. “How’s Kageyama?”

Suga wobbles a hand in the air. “It’ll take some time to kick in,” he says.

It does take some time, but once it kicks in, it kicks in hard. By the time they’ve gotten a fire going and are sitting in a close ring around it after dinner, Kageyama is slumped over on Hinata’s shoulder, no longer sneezing, but so drowsy he’s barely conscious.

“He’s going to crush Hinata,” Daichi points out softly.

“Don’t think he minds,” Suga says.

Daichi is well aware of the romance brewing between Asahi and Noya, but he hadn’t picked up on this one yet. Suga is right, though, Hinata’s eyes are bright in the glow of the fire, his smile soft and pleased with Kageyama’s head leaning against his own.

“Huh,” Daichi says, smiling at them, and then at the rest of the team as he looks around the circle. Noya’s hands moving expressively as he tells Asahi a story, Tsukishima with shoulders relaxed, talking quietly with Yamaguchi and Narita. The rest of the second years are singing now, arms around each other’s shoulders as they sway back and forth, everyone’s fingers sticky with marshmallow and chocolate. “Look at that.”

“You did it,” Suga says, slipping his hand into Daichi’s and tugging it so their interlaced fingers can be hidden in the tiny space between his thigh and Daichi’s.

“ _We_ did,” Daichi says. “How did you ever get Asahi to come back here?”

“With great patience. How did you get Tanaka to get dressed?”

“With my captain voice,” Daichi says, low and unnecessarily deep, right next to Suga’s ear.

Suga bites his lip, and they both demonstrate great patience for the rest of the evening, until Kageyama is asleep on Hinata’s lap, the fire has burned low, and whatever Noya is whispering to Asahi is making him look extremely pink-cheeked and ready to be somewhere without any eyes on him.

“Alright guys,” Daichi says. “Grab a flashlight and a buddy and go take a piss, then everyone is in their tents until the sun is up and I tell you to come out.”

There’s a bit of grumbling, but all the boys sleepily get to their feet, arguing and joking softly as their flashlight beams bob off in different directions. Daichi hopes Kageyama can hold it, because the lanky first year barely stirs when he and Suga lift him off of Hinata, and drag him over to his tent.

A few minutes later everyone has returned and zipped themselves in, and it’s just Daichi, and Suga, and the last glowing coals in the fire.

“Do you remember,” Suga says, when they’ve sat down together to watch the coals burn out and wait for the boys to fall asleep, “when we were first years, and we thought it was the best thing ever when we got to go to training camp and all sleep together on the floor?”

Daichi smiles, wrapping his arm tighter around Suga’s shoulder. “I still think it’s kind of the best,” he says. “They drive me crazy, but I like when everyone’s together.”

“Ha!” A voice crows from the second years' tent. “See? He _loves_ us. I told you—”

“GO TO SLEEP,” Daichi bellows, cutting Tanaka off.

He shoots Suga a look when he giggles, and Suga just grins and holds Daichi’s jaw so he can lean in and kiss him.

Daichi thought they’d be waiting until they were in their tent, until everyone was definitely unconscious, but there’s not one tiny part of him that wants to stop this. Suga tastes like milk chocolate, and his mouth and hands are a perfect heated counterpoint to the cooling night air. They kiss slowly enough that the wet sounds of lips meeting, and parting, and meeting again, are soft and sporadic, lost in the popping of the burned down fire. They kiss until they're shivering despite the warmth of swollen lips, and the voices and noises from the tents have all dropped off into silence.

Daichi pours water on the coals and then goes into the tent after Suga. Their sleeping bags have been unzipped entirely so they can use one as a mat and the other as a shared blanket, and they are very, very excited. They've spent the night together before, but only at training camp, surrounded by and completely visible to every member of the team.

They are still surrounded here, of course, they’re aware of this. They have not had sex yet, and this will not be the first place they do. But what they _can_ do, just being able to wrap their arms around each other and kiss and touch in the dead of night, just knowing that they can fall asleep this way, with Suga's hand slipped down the back of Daichi's pants, and both of Daichi's under Suga’s shirt, pressed to the warmth of his chest...this is well worth the madness of camping with ten other boys who don't know how to camp.

“You have the best ideas,” Daichi says, brushing his nose along Suga’s jaw before kissing behind his ear. He smells like pine trees and fire and stars.

“If no one has been eaten by bears in the morning, I’m calling this my finest yet,” Suga says.

“Noya would probably eat a bear whole before he’d let it touch Asahi,” Daichi says, and Suga laughs, his ribs rising and falling under Daichi's palms.

“Then we can all rest easy,” he says.

Daichi nods and holds Suga as tightly to his body as he possibly can. He wants to sleep just like this, with their legs tangled together and hands tucked under clothing. With lips pressed to skin and sleepy breaths falling warm and close, so the wind and the cicadas and the night are just an accompaniment to the sound of him being in love with Suga, and not having to hide it at all.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading and commenting and loving DaiSuga with me <3
> 
> I'm [ellessey-writes](http://ellessey-writes.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and you can find the rest of my AO3 DaiSuga works [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=836528&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&user_id=Ellessey).


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